Untamed
by Snowberryxoxo
Summary: The young, untamed, and free-spirited Meika comes to Hallow Hill to live with her reluctant adoptive brother after the death of their parents, but the Goblin King has other plans in store for her… Marak/OC
1. Moonchild

**_A/N: Hi, this will be my... fifth? Yes, fifth fanfic and I'm so excited about this one. First I want to thank my good friend AiramS for introducing me to The Hollow Kingdom and for wanting me to make a fanfic of it! :D _**

**_I do not own The Hollow Kingdom or any of its characters besides the ones that aren't in the book._**

**_I hope you like it and please review :) _**

**_Oh, and btw I don't know how often I'll update, but I'll defiantly do it a couple of times every week. And if you want to, then you can check out my other fanfics too. I've just finished a Vampire Diaries - Damon/OC fanfic and finished the sequel too, and I'm also writing on a Klaus/OC fanfic and a Dexter fanfic (and yes, I do have too much spare time! xD)_**

**_Again, please enjoy! _**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 1:

**Meika's POV: **

"I know this isn't much, but… it's the best I can offer you when you came with so short notice," Damian said, scratching his chin and trying to find the right words to say in these kinds of situations. But what did you say to your adopted little sister, whom you hadn't talked with for over four years and whom you had a bad relationship with? "Look, I'm really sorry about what I said to you the day I left. I didn't mean it. I just…"

Damian sighed and shook his head, walking back to the car to get the last of my suitcases. I knew he truly was sorry about what he said to me, but it didn't change the fact that our… well, _his_ parents were dead and never coming back.

I didn't know whether my biological parents were still alive, but from what I'd heard about them, then I didn't care if they had been eaten by a shark or murdered. I knew it was a harsh thing to say, but parents _didn't_ leave their infant child behind a dumpster in a dangerous neighbourhood no matter how young or how poor they might have been!

"So… um… how was the funeral?" Damian asked when he finally came back inside with my suitcase.

I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it. I just wanted to go to bed and sleep, until the sun rose once again on the blue sky and lit up Hallow Hill. Damian moved to this place to get away from the big city life and of course me. But now he was more than happy to live with me under the same roof and probably felt guilty about not being there for me.

"Fine, I get it," Damian said though, because I didn't answer him. "There's cold pizza in the fridge and probably also some soda and if you need some more pillows or blankets, then they're in my bedroom closet."

He left the living room and went in to his bedroom, while I just stood there and looked at my new bed. Damian lived in a studio apartment with only one bedroom so I had to sleep on the sofa bed. Not that I had a problem with that, because I had slept on worse before I was adopted by Damian's parents. I used to sleep on the floor, on the cold ground, on benches and the list went on.

Though, when I finally unpacked and had changed in to my pyjamas I couldn't really fall asleep and just ended up lying on my bed, listening to the music from my Ipod. I was feeling restless again. I always felt like this three times a month and it always happened when there was a full moon on the sky. But I always thought that the moon just had a weird affect on me, because I was a Cancer. Astrologist did usually say that Cancers were connected and drawn to the moon…

"_Moonchild… come out and dance…_" someone whispered nearby.

I quickly sat up and looked around in the dark living room, using the light from my Ipod to help me find the light switch. But no one was here besides me, which really made me wonder if I was beginning to hear things again.

As a kid I always used to hear a voice in my head, telling me to go outside and dance in the light of the moon, but after I moved to London with Damian's parents I hadn't heard anything. Well, except for now.

"Meika?" someone else said.

I turned my head to Damian, who was standing in the doorway to his bedroom, wearing nothing but boxer shorts and plain grey a t-shirt. I turned off my Ipod and went back to my bed, turning my back to Damian on purpose, because I still didn't want to talk with him. He said it himself on the day he left. I "_wasn't a part of the family and just some random kid someone didn't want to have_" as he emphasized so perfectly. He hated me and when I turned 18 next year then he would throw me out like… trash.

Though, in the morning I could quickly tell that Damian had made breakfast and it was to the both of us. He had even remembered to buy my favourite tea, but this didn't change anything between us. He was still just a stranger to me and defiantly _not_ my brother.

"I'm gonna head to work now, but… I've left some money in the kitchen if you want to go shopping or something like that," Damian said as I took the first bite of my toast. He hesitated to leave his apartment for some reason and just stared at me as if he wanted to say something else to me. "I really am sorry about everything, Meika. I want you to know that."

I looked at him for a moment and wondered if he was telling the truth, but it was hard to tell. Even after he left me all alone in his apartment I couldn't get myself to get up and get dressed. I was feeling numb, confused, and wanted to take away the pain inside me.

Usually, I would dance whenever I was feeling sad, because dancing was something I was really passionate about. I loved to dance, but I had never had professional training and therefore I didn't know all the terms in for example ballet or ballroom dancing. But Damian's mother always told me that I was a great dancer and that I should just practice if I wanted to be a professional dancer.

But right now I just needed some fresh air and maybe to go for a walk. I ate my breakfast, drank my tea, and got dressed and left the apartment with my beloved Ipod. I wasn't quite sure where to go, but just walked down the streets, until I came to a forest nearby. I loved to be outside in the open and free of the town's loud noises. I wanted to get away from everything and therefore I went in to the forest to explore it rather than to go shopping like Damian suggested.

On my little walk through the forest I noticed a couple of odd things, like visible scratch marks on the trees, the feeling of being watched by something else besides the animals, and beautiful flowers hidden behind bushes that normally wouldn't grow in this area. But I didn't really care about these things and just plucked some of the flowers for fun.

"_Moonchild… Come to me…_" someone whispered in my ear.

I turned around, but no one was here besides me. But I noticed someone nearby and went to them, only to see that they were gypsies and probably dangerous. We might be living in the 21st century, but gypsies were smarter, trickier, and more dangerous now. Well, some of them were, but it was hard to tell which ones wouldn't trick me or steal my things.

Though, I didn't know whether to run, go or approach them, but before I could do anything some of the gypsies approached me instead and didn't seem hostile at all. They wanted me to follow them to the river, where they were washing their clothes, and almost knew that I would come.

"What's your name, sweetheart?" the oldest one asked kindly.

"Meika," I said shyly and looked at each of them. Some of them weren't that tall and really old, while the others were almost… _normal_-looking. "Are you… gypsies?"

The oldest one nodded and laughed a bit. She took one of the lilies in my bouquet, got up on her toes, and managed to put it in my jet-black hair. I didn't know whether to be scared or happy, and just ended up standing there in front of her and looking like a fool.

"I'm Petra," she said and looked at me from head to toe. "He would like you… How old are you?"

My eyes widened. What was the talking about? Who was _he_ and why did she want to know my age? I took a deep breath to calm myself down and was about to answer when my cell phone suddenly rang and broke the awkward silence between us. I took out my phone and sighed when I saw that it was just Damian. He was probably just checking up on me and making sure that I was alright.

"I have to go," I said and saw how the old woman's face changed. She almost seemed… disappointed to hear this. "But it was nice meeting you, Petra. And I'm 17 by the way. Bye!"

I went back in to the forest and wrote a text message to Damian, telling that I had been out for a little walk, but that I was heading back to his flat. Just because I wasn't _talking_ with him didn't mean that I couldn't text him and let him now that I was still alive. It took me a while to find my way back to his flat, because I wasn't used to live in this town yet, but I eventually managed to get home and the first thing I did was to take a long and warm shower. I _needed_ a long and warm shower.

Damian, who came home around 5 o'clock, had bought Chinese for us as dinner, but I didn't mind. I knew that he was a horrible cook and hated to make dinner. I still wasn't talking with him though and it really seemed to bug him now. He even wanted to sit with me in the living room and eat dinner with me even though he didn't have to – probably because he felt guilty.

"Did you ever… well, talk about me after I left?" he asked hesitantly.

I closed my eyes for a moment and wished that he would just go away. I opened my eyes again and put down the box with noodles and chicken. I didn't feel so hungry anymore.

"You didn't have to take me in…" I finally said, avoiding his green-greyish eyes on purpose.

Damian's eyes widened a bit, he was surprised that I wanted to talk with him again, but he also seemed embarrassed about the memory of our argument on the day he left. I still remembered it like it was yesterday and still felt the same pain inside when he said those mean things.

I had just come home from school and was excited about showing his mother that I had gotten an A+ on my English essay. Damian had had a bad day and began complaining about me being the golden child in our family. Then it began to escalade and before I knew it he told me that I belonged in the alley where my parents had left me and that he wished that I had never come to _his_ family.

"Meika, I..." Damian sighed heavily and just put his arms around me, holding me tightly like he used to do when I had just come to his family. "I never hated you. I was just so… jealous and didn't want to share my parents with someone, who clearly needed them more than I did. I was being immature and it was wrong of me to say those nasty things. Now mom and dad are dead and I… I only have you. I don't want to lose you too. You're my sister, for God's sake!"

I looked at him and tried so hard to keep the tears from running down my cheeks. I didn't want to cry in front of him so I just stood up and went to the bathroom, faster than Damian could stop me or say anything at all. I closed and locked the bathroom door, and just sat down on the cold floor, letting the tears flow and ruin my makeup.

I wasn't crying, because of what Damian said, but because I missed his parents so much. They were the best adoptive parents I had and it felt so unfair that they had to die like that. They didn't deserve it. But I knew that Damian was truly sorry for what he said and that he _wanted_ me to be a part of his family. He had changed and therefore I was willing to give him another chance to get my forgiveness. He just had to be patient and wait, until I was ready to let him in to my life again.

"_Moonchild... Moonchild… where are you hiding?_" the voice said again.

I hurried over to the window, looking for any of the gypsies I met today. But I still didn't see anyone and it was really beginning to irritate me. Who was calling me a 'moonchild'? And why did the old gypsy seem so interested in me?

"Meika! Meika, please open the door!" Damian yelled from the other side of the bathroom door.

I sighed, dried my tears away and washed away my makeup too, and then took a deep breath to calm myself down before I went back outside to Damian. I tried to forget my worries, the questions, and all the odd things I had experienced today, but it was hard when I didn't know if I was just being crazy or if something odd was actually going on in this town. No matter what was going on, then I really didn't want to be a part of it, because I had my own problems to think about right now.


	2. A Very Patient Goblin

_**A/N: Hi, here's chapter 2! **_

_**I'm sorry it took so long, but my laptop broke and then I sent it to someone to repair it, but they didn't and then I had to do it myself D:**_

_**Thanks for the review... AiramS, here's your DETAILS, just kidding ;b**_

_**I hope you like it and please review! :D**_

_**xoxo Ascha**_

Chapter 2:

The tension between Damian and I were still existent, but at least I wasn't ignoring him anymore. But even though he tried his best to comfort me and take my thoughts off the fact that his- well, _our _parents were dead. I couldn't stop thinking about how they were or if they were in heaven or just being eaten by worms in the ground now.

Luckily, Damian knew just how to make me happy and took me out to the woods to go for a walk. He knew that I liked to be outside and therefore he packed a picnic basket with sandwiches before we left his apartment. I didn't care if we met the gypsies again, because this time Damian was accompanying me. He had always been able to make me feel calm or safe, and used to follow me to school to make sure that everyone knew who my brother was and that they shouldn't even try bullying me.

"When mom and dad told me that I was going to have a baby sister I… well, I let's just say that I didn't react as poorly as I did towards you the day I left," Damian said as we walked along an old path in the woods. I looked curiously around even though I had already been here and wondered where the gypsies were right now. "I actually became happy and had all sorts of plans with you."

"Like what?" I asked worriedly.

Damian chuckled and looked at me, taking my attention away from the trees and bushes around us. "I hoped that you would become my scapegoat. You know, that you would take the blame if I spilled milk or ruined a vase."

I rolled my eyes and he chuckled again. Of course he wanted me as his sister for own personal gain, but I didn't care. He did end up caring about me anyway, didn't he? I looked at him and watched him as he straightened his messy, blonde hair.

The difference between us.

You could easily tell that we weren't related, because my skin tone was pale, my eyes were deep-blue, and my hair was jet-black, while Damian had blonde hair, green eyes, and a normal skin tone. Our parents never tried to hide the fact that I was adopted and even wanted to help me find my birth parents, but I didn't want to ruin the picture of them as my only parents.

"Look," Damian said and pointed towards a big hill nearby. A great place to look up towards the moon on starry nights and the perfect place to dance. "That's the biggest hill in Hallow Hill. I've heard that elves usually come out at night and dance there…"

I looked confusedly at him and he began laughing, because he was just kidding. I rolled my eyes again and began walking towards the hill. I was curious to see how beautiful the view was from the top of it and wondered how it would feel like to be here at night time. I was defiantly going to return some day and hopefully I wouldn't meet the gypsies when I returned alone.

"So… do you have a boyfriend that I need to know of?" Damian asked curiously as we sat down and began opening the picnic basket.

"That's a wee bit too personal, don't you think?" I asked, making Damian chuckle once again.

I couldn't help smiling a bit, because I knew that he was just curious and acting like any other brother would do. He was trying to make up for what he said and until I forgave him, then he was going to continue being like this.

"No, I don't have a boyfriend right now and haven't had anyone yet. I don't have time to boys when I'm training on my dancing and school almost all the time," I finally admitted and sighed weakly, remembering how Damian used to bring home a new girl almost every week. "What about you? Do you have a girlfriend that I need to know of?"

Damian shook his head and the smile on his lips grew bigger. He was enjoying our time together and so was I. But I couldn't help but feel like someone was watching me and looked around to check if the gypsies were nearby. They were seriously beginning to make me paranoid even though I had only met them one time and was probably just overreacting.

"Meika?" Damian said, because he had probably noticed that I was a bit distracted. "Is something wrong? You keep looking around…"

"I… well, I… It's probably just nothing," I said. "But what are you working as?"

"Believe it or not, but I actually work in a bank."

My eyes widened. Damian _working_ in a _bank_! Now _that_ I had to see with my own two eyes! He always used to say that he would "never ever – not in a billion years – work in a bank and become boring" and now he had actually become what he didn't want to become. I simply couldn't stop myself from laughing and laughed so hard that my cheeks hurt.

"It's not funny! Well, it is, but… stop laughing!" Damian said with flushed cheeks.

"I'm sorry, but-but it's just so hilarious!" I chuckled and finally was able to stop laughing – though I still had the giggles.

Damian rolled his eyes and made me stop giggling by ruffling my hair and giving me a noogie. It felt like nothing had happened between us and that we were still just close siblings, who loved teasing each other like other siblings did. I was beginning to forgive him, but I was never going to stop missing our parents or forget the way they died.

"Damn, now our sandwiches were ruined!" Damian exclaimed and shook his head of the sight of the sandwiches on the ground.

"They probably didn't taste that well either…" I teased and began laughing again.

**Marak's POV:**

"She's got a very strong will," Petra said, smiling brightly to me. "But I think she'll be the perfect wife for you. I mean… have you seen her eyes?"

I shook my head and scratched it a bit with my sharp nails. I hadn't had the chance to see her with my own two eyes yet, but from what Petra had told me, then she would be a bit of a struggle to catch. But I always loved a challenge and wanted to be greater than my late father, who caught himself an elf, who hated him more than anything in the beginning.

"Maybe I should pay her a little visit," I said, smirking a bit. "Show me where she lives."

Petra smiled brighter and took me to the modernised town where my predecessor had once walked down the streets at night time and looked for their future wife too. I snuck in to the small apartment and immediately saw the girl Petra had described to me. She was lying in the living room, sleeping peacefully and dreaming about something that seemed to bother her.

The girl had long, jet-black hair; her skin was pale but beautiful as the moon, and her eyes… I couldn't see her eyes, but I didn't mind. I was a very patient Goblin and especially, when it came to a girl like her. She was one of a kind and would make a great queen, but an even better mother.

However, I had to hide myself before I could touch her, because she woke up from the bad dream and looked worriedly around in the living room, showing me her mesmerizing deep-blue eyes. Though, it wasn't an ordinary trait for a Moonchild to have such wonderful eyes. Sadly, it was also because of their eyes that they were an almost extinct race.

"Is anybody here?" the girl asked worriedly.

I wanted to talk with her, but not now. Not here. She would probably scream and wake up her adoptive brother, and I didn't want to hurt him to get to her. She was like a prey. I had to sneak up on her when she was alone and vulnerable, and surprise her before she had the chance to get away.

"I'm beginning to get crazy…" she muttered and left her bed.

She went to the bathroom and then to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water. She looked sleepy, but something was stopping her from falling asleep again. It wasn't the bad dreams, but more likely the feeling of being away from the full moon. She was like an elf in that way, but her need to get away was much stronger and overwhelming. I could see the sadness in her eyes when she went to the window and looked up at the bright full moon.

Tomorrow would be the last night she could see it and if she didn't, then she would become very irritated and depressed, which could become a major problem if I managed to catch her. But the girl seemed like she couldn't wait anymore and quickly got dressed before she left the apartment with her Ipod and began walking towards the woods. I followed her from a distance and was curious to see what she would do when she came to the hill. Did she want to find herself a Goblin or the moon?

The 17-year-old Moonchild went to the top of the hill and stared at the bright full moon. She was in an odd trance-like form and her beautiful eyes were lit up by the light of the moon. Calmly, I went closer and closer towards her, wondering if I should just take her now or watch the rare moment of a real Moonchild, who danced under the full moon and made everything around her bloom or grow.

I chose to stay and just sat down on a big rock, while she began dancing around elegantly and enchantingly, making the flowers around her bloom without she even noticing it. She didn't know what she was or why she was feeling drawn to the moon.

"Your Highness, shouldn't you be catching your wife?" Petra asked worriedly.

"Yes, but… not now," I answered and looked at her. Petra used to take care of me after my mother died and even now that I was an adult she still looked after me, wanting nothing but the best for me. "She's truly beautiful, isn't she? And very talented too. I can't remember when the last time any Goblin saw such a powerful Moonchild was."

Petra nodded and turned her attention to my future wife, who was still dancing gracefully to what sounded like classical music. But the more I watched her dance the more I wanted to catch her right away. I stood up and took one step, accidentally stepping on a branch and catching my fiancée's attention. She turned to us and became frightened when she saw me, because the only thing she could see from afar was a scary, black figure of a tall man, who was watching her.

Immediately, she ran.

I ran after her as fast as I could and followed her in to the woods, hoping that she wouldn't get hurt during the hunt. It was very dark and most humans wouldn't be able to run that fast without running in to a tree, but my dear fiancée wasn't like most humans. She was a Moonchild and therefore used to the darkness. She didn't need a flashlight, but just her eyes and focus on getting away.

(Un)fortunately, she fell over a branch and rolled down a hill. She was knocked unconscious for a moment, but as soon as she regained consciousness and saw me standing behind her she got up on her feet and ran again. Petra was right about something. She _did_ have a strong will and would be hard to catch. But as I said before: I was a very patient Goblin.

Though, she did drop something very important to her and that thing was lying on the ground in front of me, playing a song I had never heard before. I picked it up and looked at the scratched screen that lit up the darkness a bit. I smiled weakly and listened carefully to her steps. She had stopped, because she had realized that she had dropped her Ipod. I turned the volume up and placed the Ipod on a big rock nearby; using it to lure her out like a fish would be lured out because of worms.

I could hear that she came nearer and nearer, but she was hesitating a lot. Moonchildren wasn't only addicted to the moon, but also to music and loved to dance to all sorts of music. Therefore I knew that she would return and return she did. She looked worriedly around, took a deep breath to calm herself down, and went to reclaim her beloved Ipod when I jumped on her, catching her by surprise.


	3. Captivity

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 3! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review!_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 3:

**Meika's POV:**

Everything happened so fast that I couldn't understand what was going on. In one moment I was dancing under the moon, feeling this odd sensation of freedom and joy, and in the next moment I was being chased by some creepy hooded man, who seemed taller than Damian and he was 5.9!

But when I finally woke up for the second time and saw that I was in a dark, but beautiful bedroom I relaxed, hoping that I was somewhere safe and far away from the man. There was something about him that just made my instincts go crazy and force me to fight back.

Though, right now I was hurt and couldn't really do anything, but look around and try to find my cell phone. I searched the bed I was lying in, looked at my ripped clothes that lay on a table next to me, and wondered why someone had taken everything but my underwear off.

It was difficult for me to keep my balance, because I had hit my head pretty hard and it felt like I had sprained my ankle when I fell down the hill. But I couldn't find my cell phone or even my Ipod, which really made me worried. Where was I? And what exactly had happened after I was knocked unconscious?

"Damian!" I called, but no one answered. Hesitantly, I went to the door – using the wall to keep my balance – and tried opening it. It was locked. "Damian! Are you the–"

I was cut off when I suddenly heard the sound of someone unlocking the door. I limped back to the bed and armed myself with a lamp, waiting patiently for whoever was keeping me captive.

As soon as the person entered the room and I recognized the dark clothes he was wearing, I threw the lamp at him, hitting him in the head. I thought that he would have been knocked unconscious by this, but he didn't. He just shook the glass pieces off him and took his dark cloak off.

I was shocked to see how he looked like. He had pale skin that made him look like a living corpse, his lips were grey, his canines were sharp and like a lion's teeth and his limps were large and strong. But what I really noticed about him was his golden lion-like eyes and sharp nails. He was like a… monster, but still human in some ways.

I must have been dreaming, because this couldn't be real. This _thing_ couldn't be real. I closed my eyes and tried to make him disappear, but when I opened my eyes again I saw that he was still there, smirking arrogantly as if he had just won something.

"You know, I really thought you would have been harder to catch, but–"

I cut him off by throwing another lamp at him and ran towards the doorway, hoping that he would be distracted until I got out. But he expected this and grabbed my arm as I passed him, yanking me right back. He seemed amused, but I wasn't going to let him hurt me so I fought back – hard.

"Let go of me, you perv!" I screamed, scratching his face with my fingernails and kicking him in the stomach.

Nothing seemed to hurt him and every time I tried to get out of his grip he would just laugh and gently push me back as if I was light as a feather to him. Therefore, I tried biting him instead and bit his hand, finally making him growl loudly because it hurt. He let go of me and I ran towards the doorway, only to hit an invisible wall and fall down to the ground.

"Petra was right about you," the man said. Petra! I recognized the name, but I couldn't understand what was going on. Was this a dream or not? "You have a strong will. What's your name?"

He helped me up and carried me back to the bed, while I was still feeling dizzy from the crash with the door. I didn't say my name, but just pushed him away from me and tried to focus. I had gotten a splitting headache and needed some sleep. I closed my eyes again and tried making him disappear, but he was still there, smirking at me with those sharp teeth.

"Am I dreaming?" I asked worriedly, trying my best not to freak out or cry.

"No, but don't worry," he answered calmly. "You'll get used to me after some time down here."

I became puzzled. "Down here?"

He nodded and gently stroked my cheek with his hand. It felt like the paw of a lion, but what really made me confused was that he was actually calming my nerves down. Though, I refused to believe that any of this was real.

"This is my home, the Hollow Kingdom, and this… will be your home too now, my love," he said. "I'm the Goblin King, Marak Liontail. Please, tell me your name."

I shook my head. None of this could be real. Goblins didn't exist, he didn't exist, and I was probably just dreaming or maybe even in some sort of coma. But Marak wasn't going to budge and just took out something from a black bag that looked like some sort of cream. He gently took my hurt ankle and rubbed the cream on it.

Immediately, I felt a painful burning sensation in the beginning, but after a while the pain disappeared and so did the bruises on it. Marak did the same thing with the wound on my head and before I knew it I was as good as new. Though, as soon as he had finished I pushed him off the bed and tried to flee once again. This time I kicked on the invisible wall, but it wouldn't budge either.

"Moonchild," Marak said firmly. I recognized the word and turned to him, looking confusedly at his scary face. "You have to calm down. You're using up all your strength and you're going to need your strength to our wedding."

My face turned pale – well, more than usual. I defiantly wanted to get out now. This _thing_ was crazy! I didn't want to marry him nor did I want to live in this creepy, dark place. I wanted to go home to Damian or at least to be out in the open, free and careless.

"Please let me out," I begged him, but his face was cold and emotionless. "Please, I… I want to go home."

Marak just shook his head and calmly went closer to me. He didn't look at my half-naked body like most perverts, who kidnapped young girls like me, usually did.

"Please rest," he urged. "I promise I'll explain everything to you tomorrow morning. Petra will come with some new clothes to you and give you what you need."

"But-but…" Marak shushed me, gave me a gentle kiss on my forehead, and left me alone in the bedroom to rest.

After a few minutes Petra came inside as well and handed me the new clothes – a beautiful white summer dress. I asked her many questions about what was going on and why I was here, but she simply smiled and told me that I should just be calm and do as I was told. This made me furious.

How could she just ignore my cry for help and let that monster marry me? Was she just as crazy as he was? And where _was_ the Hollow Kingdom anyway?

"Meika, please go to bed," Petra urged after helping me get dressed. The dress was like a corset in the back, but just not as tight and painful to wear. "Marak doesn't want you to–"

"I don't care what he wants! He's a bloody monster! He kidnapped me!" I hissed angrily.

Petra sighed heavily. "Don't say that. He's a very kind Goblin, you know. And it's a tradition for Goblins to kidnap their wives."

"A _tradition_? Do you even hear how crazy that sounds?" I exclaimed.

She sighed again, but she didn't want to stand here and argue with me so she left the bedroom. Though, I wasn't going to listen to any of them and do as they told me to. I was going to get out even if I had to try all night! I grabbed one chair after another, swinging it against the door and trying to break the invisible wall. I then tried breaking the wall with a table, nightstands, ottomans, mirrors, and what else I could find in here. I ended up trashing the whole bedroom as if it was a battlefield.

But no matter how much I tried and how many furniture I ruined I simply couldn't get out. The wall seemed to be unbreakable, but… how was Petra and Marak then able to enter and leave my bedroom whenever they wanted to?

A part of me really didn't want to know, because none of this was supposed to be real in the first place. But until morning came, I wasn't going to fall asleep. I sat down on the floor and just waited...

**Marak's POV:**

"I didn't expect her to be _that_ feisty," I said and sighed heavily. Petra placed her hand on my shoulder, comforting me like she always did. "The catch wasn't the hardest thing, but keeping her here is. She's probably going to try everything she's capable of to get out."

"Don't give up on her now, dear!" Petra said.

My eyes widened and I looked confusedly at her. "Oh, I'm not giving up on her! I'm just worried of what she might do. She _is_ a Moonchild after all."

Petra nodded. She knew as well that Moonchildren were wild, untameable, and sometimes also very stubborn. But before I could prepare myself to our wedding I had to do a couple of things, which I knew would make Meika calm down. Therefore, I spent all night repairing her Ipod even though I wasn't used to repair electronics.

All night I could hear that Meika was trying to get out. She tossed things, screamed, and didn't want to fall asleep. However, around 3:00 AM she became oddly quiet and didn't do anything at all. I guessed that she had finally fallen asleep or maybe given up for now.

But she was defiantly going to continue trying to get away like the other Goblin Queens had tried to before her. They always did, until they grew fond of their husband and settled down. Though, I did fear that it would take a while for Meika to settle down, because there was a reason why Moonchildren acted the way they did in captivity.

They were free-spirited creatures, who loved the nature around them and who got their powers from the moon. Their magic was therefore very strong, but of course they needed to learn how to control them before they could use them to defend themselves, which Meika clearly hadn't. But if she behaved and fell in love with me, then I might give her the opportunity to learn to control them.

"There you go!" I exclaimed, smiling brightly as I looked at the brand new Ipod in my hands.

I looked over at the old grandfather clock and sighed when I saw that I had been up all night. I yawned a bit and went back to Meika's bedroom to see if she was still sleeping. She was, but she was sleeping on the floor and her whole bedroom had been trashed. I closed my eyes for a moment, reminding myself of that I had to be patient, and just carried her in to my bedroom.

I could hear that Meika was muttering something in her sleep – something about her parents dying. I gently lay her on my bed and connected her to me with a leash-spell that would let her go at least 6 feet away from me. If she tried to run away she would just bounce back in to my arms.

I knew that Meika would probably freak out if she saw me lying next to her, but I didn't care how much she despised me right now. Therefore, I crawled in to bed with her without hesitation and let her head rest on my shoulder. I closed my eyes too and tried falling asleep.


	4. A Wild And Frightened Animal

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 4! :)_**

**_I hope you like it and please review! :D_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 4:

**Meika's POV:**

I didn't know what time it was or where I was, but I knew that I wasn't alone in the bed I was lying in. Calmly, I opened my eyes and saw that I had been sleeping in Marak's embrace. Luckily, he was still sleeping heavily, so I tried sneaking out of the bed as quiet as possible and saw that I was in another bedroom. I must have fallen asleep in the other one, because I didn't remember ever going in here.

Though, I didn't want to stick around and look at him sleeping so I tried sneaking quietly over to the door, hoping that this room didn't have an invisible wall too in the doorway. But as I opened the door I could see that Marak was beginning to wake up and therefore I panicked and ran as fast as I could towards the door. Even though I opened it and was able to step over the threshold, then something pulled me back anyway as if he had tied an invisible rope to my arm.

Marak was woken up by my action, but he didn't try to stop me this time. He just sat in the bed, shirtless and looking a bit tired, and watched me trying to flee. I tried and tried, but I just couldn't.

"Meika, you're only tiring yourself," Marak said, chuckling a bit. "I've cast a leash-spell so you can only go 6 feet away from me."

I stopped and turned to him. He wasn't just crazy. He was psychotic! I looked around in his bedroom, took a lamp nearby, and threw it after him, but missed. Before I could take another lamp he hurried to me and grabbed both of my arms, pushing me against the wall to keep me still.

"You've already trashed one bedroom. Don't trash this one too," he said firmly and smirked arrogantly. That-that… monster! "Oh, don't look at me like that, love. I'm just trying to tame that wild heart of yours."

I tried kicking him instead, but he only pressed his strong body closer to mine, standing so close that I began blushing. I hadn't had a boyfriend before and usually felt very uncomfortable and shy around boys around my age. Even if Marak wasn't human, then he still made me feel shy and uncomfortable. But I couldn't handle that he held me trapped like this and felt like I was beginning to get claustrophobic. I tried pushing him away this time, but it felt like I was pushing an unmoveable wall.

"Relax…" Marak urged calmly, trying to calm me down. "I don't want to hurt you, Meika. I would never want to do that. You're my fiancée and–"

"No!" I cried, feeling the tears run down my cheeks. I couldn't take this anymore and wanted to go home so badly. "Let me go! Please! I… I beg you."

Marak finally let go of me and took a step back, looking worriedly at me. I needed to get away from him and I needed it right now. Therefore, I tried to leave the bedroom again, but the leash-spell kept me from walking more than 6 feet away from him. Instead, I just sat down on the floor and began crying hysterically. Marak didn't seem to like this and kneeled next to me, turning on my Ipod and making me listen to the music. It was as if he knew that music would calm me down and it surely did.

Though, I was still scared and didn't even want to look at his face, let alone those creepy lion-like eyes. So I ended up sitting on the floor for a while, while Marak got dressed and then sat down next to me without saying a word. I was beginning to feel like I was an animal to him. A wild and frightened animal that he had to tame before he could call it a human being.

"Why do you want to marry me?" I asked shyly, turning down the volume on my Ipod.

Marak began smirking and leaned his back against the dresser behind him. I could tell by the way he looked at me that he had been waiting eagerly to tell me why, probably hoping that if he gave me a reason then I would succumb to him and want to marry him. As if…

"I could say that it's only because you're very beautiful and that I love you, but then I would be lying and I don't want to lie to you," Marak said. "The reason why I kidnapped you and took you here to marry me is because that my father is dying. He's the Goblin King, but when he dies then I have to take over and produce an heir to continue our legacy…"

"So I'm only here to breed?" I hissed angrily, tossing my Ipod on the bed and wanting to hit him badly.

"God, no!" Marak shook his head by the thought as if I had said something preposterous. "The Goblins need a queen to look up to. If you wear a certain dress or shoe, then they'll do it too. If you praise of kindness, peace, and love, then they'll do it too. You understand?"

I nodded, but I still didn't want to marry him. The thought of me having to sleep with that monster and then give birth to _his_ child was deeply disturbing. I was only 17 and supposed to enjoy my teen years. I shouldn't have to take care of a child already when I wasn't ready for such a big job.

"Can't you marry someone else? I mean, why me?" I asked calmly.

Marak shook his head and pushed a stray of his dark hair behind his ear. "You… you're something special, Meika. In fact, you're one of a kind, literally speaking," he said and smiled brightly, scaring me a bit with those sharp teeth. "You're a Moonchild and therefore a very powerful asset to the Goblins. Our son will become one of the strongest kings in the Goblins' history."

I raised an eyebrow. "Our son? You can't know if we get a son! Not that I'm even considering sleeping with you, but…" I shook my head, but Marak just chuckled.

"Of course it's going to become a son. It always is. But why that is is a long and boring story. Right now we should get something to eat. You must be very hungry."

I sighed, got up, and followed Marak to a beautiful decorated living room where our breakfast had already been prepared and just waited for us to eat it.

**Marak's POV:**

Meika clearly didn't trust me at all, because during breakfast she wouldn't eat anything. Instead of tasting the delicious food she would sit there and stare worriedly at it or poke it with her fork as if it was dangerous. In some ways it amused me, but I didn't want her to starve herself – especially when she was using all her strength to either trying to run away or to worry about what I would do to her.

"When can I see my brother?" she asked, just as I finished my meal.

"That depends," I answered teasingly. "If you behave well after the wedding, then I might let you see him."

Meika was nothing but pleased to hear this. I could see by the way she sighed and sulked that she missed her adoptive brother dearly. He was her only family and like a brother to her.

"I know you miss your brother, but you need to eat and drink." I urged.

"You don't know anything about me," Meika muttered angrily. She took her glass of water and tossed the water in my face when I tried to near her. Then she began throwing the plates, stabbing me with the forks and knives, and went completely ballistic once again, because she had had enough. "I would rather be dead than marrying you, you freak!"

I sighed heavily and calmly, dried the water off my face. I didn't want to become angry and scare Meika, like I did in my bedroom, because I knew that underneath that temper was a frightened 17-year-old, who wanted to be free and happy.

"You want to fight with me?" I asked, confusing her on purpose so she would be distracted from her anger towards me.

"No…" Meika answered hesitantly. "But you make me so furious! You think you can just kidnap me, make me your wife, and then knock me up without even thinking about what I want! I had plans, you know!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Plans? Like what?"

Meika crossed her arms and stared angrily at me instead, because she didn't really have any plans. Not any serious ones anyway. I had seen that she loved to dance and was very talented at it, but if she had to be realistic then she knew that she couldn't live off of being a professional dancer. Not with her background.

"That still doesn't give you the power to control what's supposed to happen with me," Meika said firmly. "What if _I_ suddenly told _you_ that you weren't allowed to see your family anymore and that you were forced to do something you didn't want to do?"

I perfectly understood where she was going by this, but I wasn't like her. I was a Goblin and it was in our nature to do what we did no matter how humans looked at our actions. What they thought was a wrong thing to do we thought was right. Well, at least some of the things.

"Marak, dear. Your father wants to talk with you," Petra announced and noticed what a mess Meika had done in here. She sighed and shook her head a bit. "He wants to meet Meika too if she wants to."

"I _don't_ want to!" Meika hissed.

I couldn't help but chuckle. She was truly a Moonchild in many ways, but that was what I liked about her. She was entertaining and you never knew what she might do. But I didn't want to force her to meet my father so therefore I removed the leash-spell and locked Meika inside my bedroom, leaving her with a newly prepared breakfast if she changed her mind and was still hungry.

My father only had a few months left, but he refused to lie in his bed all day. He wanted to walk around in the kingdom, tried to do his daily chores, and would urge me to take my time finding a suitable wife instead of hurrying and stressing out about it.

Though, today my father wasn't up on his feet and doing his chores like he usually did, but lying in his bed and coughing. He had gotten worse and looked as pale as a living dead. I took a chair and sat down next to him, helping him to sit up so he could breathe properly.

"Father, have you been running around all day again? You know it's not good for your health…" I said, feeling like a worried parent more than a son.

My father coughed again and shook his head, still so stubborn and refusing to give up that easily. "Marak, do-don't worry about me, son," he said hoarsely. "Where's that wild fiancée of yours that Petra has told me so much about? I've heard you've caught a Moonchild."

I smiled and couldn't help but feel proud of my accomplishment. I was probably the first Goblin who had ever successfully caught a Moonchild without accidentally killing her in the process.

"Yes, that's true, but she's very angry at me for catching her," I admitted. "She wouldn't sleep, she trashed her bedroom, she constantly tries to flee, and…" I shook my head and sighed.

But my father laughed, because it amused him to hear this. Meika probably reminded him of my mother, who too was very defensive and angry in the beginning. Though, he _was_ proud of me and hoped to meet her some day before he died.

"Just remember, my son," he reminded me, clapping my shoulder proudly. "The ones that hate their husband the most always end up, loving their husband the most."

I nodded, feeling better about the situation I was in. I knew that I could make Meika love me. I just had to be patient, push the right buttons, and be a good husband as well as king. Though, it still saddened me to know that my father wasn't going to watch me marry or meet his grandson.


	5. Liontail

**_A/N: Hi, here's chaapter 5! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review!_**

**_xoxo Ascha _**

**_Btw, I know I've written "a lot" about spicy food somewhere in this chapter, but I can't help it! I love spicy food! xD_**

Chapter 5:

**Meika's POV:**

Marak returned around 12:00 with dinner, only to see that I had trashed his bedroom too. I was going to keep ruining his things, until he let me out or at least let me see my brother so I could tell him to call the police or rescue me from this place. Though, Marak didn't get angry at me for ruining his bedroom and just calmly approached me. He seemed frustrated and sad, which only made me feel bad a bit. I felt like I was hurting him.

"You still haven't touched your breakfast," he said and frowned. "Are you trying to starve yourself?"

"If it will get me out of here, then yes!" I said, glaring at him venomously.

Marak lifted his hands in defeat. "You're…" He gritted his teeth and went closer to me. He sat down on the floor in front of me and scratched his head a bit, trying to figure out what to say.

"Meika, I know you're upset and want to go home, but I _can't_ let you go. I _won't_ let you go," he said and I felt the tears run silently down my cheeks again. I didn't want to hear what he was saying. "I–"

"I hate you!" I interrupted angrily, tears still running down my cheeks.

I buried my face in my palms, crying my heart out in front of this cold-hearted beast, who was keeping me captivated. But instead of laughing like he usually did, he took me up on his lap and held his arms around me, comforting me and holding me close to him. I didn't fight back this time, but almost enjoyed the feeling of his arms around me. I felt safe and wanted to stay even though I hated him so much.

"Would it make you happy if I brought you your brother here as well?" Marak asked.

I pulled away and looked at him. He was beginning to soften up to me. I had to take this to my advantage and if I was lucky, then Damian might be able to get us out of this hellhole.

"You would do that to me?" I asked.

Marak nodded and smiled, because I had stopped crying. "But he can only stay until the day after our wedding."

"Fine! Just bring him here!" I ordered more than said.

He chuckled and dried my tears away, but he didn't leave just yet. "I'll have him here before tonight _if_ you eat your dinner."

I nodded understandingly and began eating the dinner he had prepared to me. It looked like a burger with French fries and ketchup, but the meat… it tasted more like lamb than chicken and it was really spicy. Not that it bothered me that it was spicy, but… I didn't expect them to eat spicy food. I meant, they _were_ monsters after all. But I did like the dinner and – as hard as it was for me to admit – then I actually wanted more. One of Marak's minions therefore brought me some more.

However, when Marak came to visit me again around 3:00, he didn't just want to talk with me and keep me company. I could already tell just by looking at his excited facial expression that he had big plans for me this late afternoon. Maybe he had already kidnapped my brother too and hoped that this would make me stay.

"I see you actually like our food now…" he said, clearly amused by how much I had eaten. I didn't even smile to him. I still hated him and wanted to go home. "Come. There's someone I want you to meet. And if you behave then I won't use the leash-spell on you."

I shook my head. I was afraid of leaving the bedroom with him when I knew that we were in a kingdom filled with scary Goblins, who thought that I was going to become their new queen. But Marak did the leash-spell on me anyway and forced me to follow him to another bedroom where a much older, grey-haired, and paler version of him was lying in a bed and coughing hard.

"Father," Marak said kindly. His father turned his attention to me and smiled. I couldn't believe that I was actually meeting his father, but I wasn't exactly happy about it. "This is my fiancée Meika. Dear, this is my father, King Marak."

I looked confusedly at the both of them. "Is his name _also_ Marak?" I asked.

"Yes, every son is named Marak, but until my father dies, then I'm simply known as Liontail." Marak answered.

Oh… Now I got it! They were named after the traits they had. The Marak I was supposed to marry had a Liontail and therefore he became _Marak Liontail_, while his father was named after whatever his trait was.

"But why not just name your son something else? Does it have to be Marak?" I asked.

They both nodded and his father took over the conversation. "It's a tradition, Meika. Just like that you were named Meika. You were named after your mother whose name was Meika Rose. She always adored roses and spent hours and hours in the rose fields."

He knew my mother? I hurried over to King Marak and sat down on the chair next to his bed. I wanted to know more even though I'd spent 17 years, hating my birth parents for leaving me like that. But Liontail _had_ told me that I was one of a kind and a… what was it? Moonchild?

"You knew my mother?" I asked worriedly.

King Marak nodded, but coughed hard again. "I actually tried to catch her once, but she got away and met someone else. Your _elf_-father," he said. "But I'm truly sorry that you never had the chance to know her. She was so loving and caring, and would have been a wonderful mother as well as queen of her kingdom."

"So… she was the _princess_ of the Moonchildren?" I leaned closer, ignoring the fact that he was just another hideous Goblin like Liontail.

King Marak nodded and smiled weakly, but enough for me to see his sharp teeth. "But her kingdom wasn't so much of a kingdom anymore, because your race had been hunted down by the dark shadows that lured. They wanted you dead, because without any Moonchildren there won't be anyone to take care of the planet and it will therefore die."

Oh, God! I couldn't let that happen. I cared deeply for the nature and actually hated hearing that humans were killing the planet with their cars, factories, and need for more space. They didn't care about the rainforest, they didn't care about the major changes in the weather, and even though they did want to help the planet, then they actually never did it. It was just empty words and promises…

Why did I feel so passionate about keeping the Earth alive? Was it because I really was a Moonchild? If I was, then that would mean that Liontail was telling the truth about me and everything else.

But then again… when it began to snow in April, then there was something seriously wrong with the world! I shook the thoughts away and looked after Liontail. He was sitting at his father's desk and reading some of the papers on it. I wondered whether I should try to run away now or stay and listen to what King Marak had to say about my mother. I knew that Liontail had cast the leash-spell on me, but… I had to try anyway.

"Don't do it," King Marak whispered, taking my attention away from the doorway. I looked confusedly at him. "My son loves you so much. It would break his heart if you ran away when he's been nothing but nice to you."

"Nice? He kidnapped me, for God's sake! He took me away from my only family and wants me to marry him and have his son. He doesn't care about how _I_ feel about all of this!" I whispered angrily.

King Marak shook his head. "He does. Trust me. It pains him to see you so miserable here, but…" He coughed again. "… He needs your support. Soon I'm dead and then he has to take care of the whole kingdom. You should know how hard it is to have so much responsibility. You're the last of your kind and have responsibilities too."

I sighed heavily, which made Liontail turn his attention to me. He looked so worried for me and like he truly did love me even though we'd only known each other for two days.

"Meika, I know you feel trapped here and miss your brother dearly – trust me I know. My wife missed her family too, but she grew to love me and the kingdom more than anything. I even gave her the chance to run away, but she stayed because she knew that sometimes it didn't matter if she was happy if anyone else wasn't. You understand?" King Marak said.

I nodded, but I still felt like they were treating me wrongfully by taking me away from my brother like that and forced me to live a life I didn't want. Not yet, anyway.

"I do understand what you're telling me, but… I'm thinking about how my brother is feeling right now. He recently lost his parents and now he only has me. Is it fair to him to take away his only family?" I asked.

"Of course not, but he's always welcome here. Though, if you want him to stay by your side – even after the wedding – then he has to stay here forever," King Marak answered. "But when he arrives today and is allowed to stay here the next couple of weeks or months, then I truly hope that you won't try to flee again. My son trusts you, while most future kings wouldn't even let their fiancée see her family at all."

Lucky me! I sighed heavily again and my eyes trailed back to Liontail, who looked pretty preoccupied by doing his father's paperwork.

"Your kingdom and traditions are really… confusing," I said, loud enough for Liontail to hear it. He chuckled but didn't say anything to my comment. "But I reckon that you Goblins think that the human traditions are confusing too, right?"

King Marak nodded and chuckled too, but his laughter was drowned by another hard cough. I helped him to sit up so he could breathe properly. Even though he was just another Goblin, then I still felt like I did towards any other sick, old man. I pitied them and wanted to help them.

"Thank you, dear. I see you're just as caring as your mother was," he said and smiled weakly. "You have her looks too… You want to know what your name mean?"

I nodded eagerly and he continued. "Many think it derived from the name _Meike_, but it actually a very common name amongst the elves. It means _Untamed_."

I couldn't help but smile and looked at Liontail again. He was chuckling in the background so I approached him and noticed that he was writing in a whole other language. I had heard that he also talked in another language when he talked to the other Goblins, but… I didn't know they had their own language and alphabet.

"Should I call you Liontail or Marak?" I asked curiously, completely forgetting my anger towards him at the moment.

"Call me whatever you want to, but–"He smirked a bit and looked me in my eyes. "Don't use this opportunity to call me all sorts of nasty things."

I giggled, because I had just the name for him. "Fine, then! From now on I'll only call you Godeliva, and yes that is actually a name!"

Liontail narrowed his eyes. "But that's a girl's name…?" he said confusedly, but I just began snickering.


	6. Peace

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 6!_**

**_I hope you like it and please review! :D_**

**_And thanks for reviewing, story alerting (is that even a word? xD) etc..._**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

**_P.S. HERE'S YOUR DAMN UPDATE, AiramS! xD_**

Chapter 6:

**Meika's POV:**

Damian arrived before it became night, just as Liontail promised, but he didn't look too happy about being kidnapped by Goblins and taken to their kingdom. I hurried over to Damian as soon as I saw him, but forgot all about the leash-spell and just bounced back in to Liontail's arms. I felt like a dog on a short leash and hated it, but it was better than sitting in Liontail's bedroom all day.

"Meika! Thank you, God! I thought you were…" Damian shook his head, not wanting to say the word. He tried to hug me, but the guards pushed him away, and said something in their strange language to Liontail, who quickly answered him. They let Damian go and he finally got the chance to hug me. "Are you alright? And what the hell is this place anyway?"

"It's…" I bit my lip. I wasn't quite sure about it either. "It's the Goblins' kingdom. It's hard for me to explain, but I'm fine and…" I turned my head to Liontail, who looked worriedly at us. It was almost as if he knew that I was thinking about running away. "Um… Liontail, may I please talk with my brother in private?"

Liontail shook his head. "I'm already breaking a rule just by letting him in," he explained. "But… I'll make the leash longer."

He went a little farther away from us than only 6 feet, but still watched Damian and me very closely, because he was worried of what I might do this time. He might love me, but he didn't trust me at all.

"Did you just say…Goblins?" Damian asked worriedly.

I nodded and lowered my voice. "The prince kidnapped me and now he wants to marry me and make me pregnant – just to get an heir to the throne! They say that I'm a Moonchild and the last one of my kind, and–"

"Wait, what?" he exclaimed, making all the Goblins turn their heads to us.

I shushed Damian and took another step away from the Goblins. "I'm sorry, but are you serious?"

I nodded and he took another look at the tall creatures. He shrugged by the sight of them. "I'm gonna get you out of here. I promise. But when is this weird wedding?"

"I don't know. Liontail said that his father – the king – had to die before we could marry. He's going to be the next king and needs a queen by his side."

Damian scratched his head and looked around, wondering how we could get away without getting caught by those hideous, monster-like creatures. Even if he found a way out, then I would still be bound to Liontail. I had to find a way to use the powers King Marak told me about or maybe I could trick Liontail into removing the leash-spell. That would be a very hard task, but I had to try if I wanted to go home again. As much as I wanted to continue this Moonchild-race then I didn't want to stay down here forever and be the queen of those… monsters.

"I'll try to find a way out, but right now I just want you here," I said, hugging Damian tightly. I had truly missed him and wished that I hadn't left his apartment to dance under the light of the beautiful full moon. "I want to go home, Damian… I just want to go home."

Damian tried to comfort me, but somehow it didn't feel quite as comfortable as when Liontail held his arms around me. But I didn't want to think about him right now and shook the thoughts away, tugging Damian closer to me.

"Okay okay, I get it! You've missed me! Don't squeeze me now!" Damian exclaimed, laughing a bit.

I loosened my arms and let go of him, noticing Liontail near us with calm steps. He still wasn't too happy about me being around my brother. This confused me. He was just my adoptive brother – not some other guy who wanted to marry me.

"Meika, as I told you before then your brother can only stay here until after the wedding," Liontail reminded me. "If you weren't the last Moonchild, then I wouldn't even let him alone – let alone give him the chance to stay here forever – but I _trust_ you and I hope you'll learn to trust me too."

"The last Moonchild? What are you talking about?" Damian asked confusedly.

Liontail looked at Damian for a moment, thinking about something that seemed to bug him, but he shook the thought away and took a deep breath.

"She's the queen of the Moonchildren… the last one of her kind. If she dies then there won't be anyone to take care of the nature that you humans are destroying," he said and of course Damian was offended by this. "Even if she marries a human in a few years, then she won't be protected against those who want the Moonchildren's power. She'll die. You don't want that, do you?"

Damian shook his head. "But right now, the only monsters who are hurting her are you. You can't force my sister to marry you and have your child. She's only 17, for God's sake!" he hissed angrily.

I noticed that Damian's fists were clenched and that he was ready to hit Liontail, so I pulled him a bit away from him and told him to relax. I didn't want to give the Goblins a reason to toss him out or kill him when they were so much stronger than him.

However, Damian had always had a tendency to get angry very easily and therefore he just pushed me away and jumped on Liontail. But just like when I tried to hurt him, then he Damian wasn't strong enough and was pushed down on the ground with only one hand. Though, Liontail was growling now and pissed so I quickly got in between them and tried to rescue my brother from getting killed.

"Take his memory away and toss him out!" Liontail ordered and his guards quickly did as they were told.

I tried to run after them and stop them from taking Damian away from me, but Liontail held me back and so did the leash. I was forced to watch Damian lose every memory of this place and lost my only chance to get away from here. I was pissed too though and as soon as my brother was gone I turned my head to Liontail and slapped him hard across his face.

"You bastard! _Why_ did you have to take him away?" I hissed angrily.

Liontail stood in front of me – emotionless and cold-hearted – and didn't say a word at first. I tried slapping him again, but this time he stopped my arm and grabbed me by my wrist, just before I hit his face. He was pissed too, but it wasn't only because Damian attacked him.

"Because _you_ were going to run away with him anyway! You think I'm stupid? Is that it? You think you can just use my trust and run from your responsibilities?" Liontail hissed back and raised his hand, because he wanted to hit me.

Luckily, he came to his senses and didn't do it anyway, but I didn't do or say anything. I just stood there and cried, feeling so frustrated, so lonely, and so… scared. He almost hurt me even though he kept saying to me that he loved me and didn't want to hurt me in any way.

Liontail sighed heavily and tried to touch me, but I took a step back – scared that he still wanted to hurt me.

"Do-don't touch me…" I whimpered.

"Meika, I…" Liontail sighed again and just took me back to his bedroom. It had been cleaned and fixed, but some of his broken things were missing. "I've removed the leash-spell… for now. But… Meika, I'm really sorry about what happened. I just want to see you happy."

I ignored him. I didn't even want to look him in his eyes. He didn't deserve my attention and was far away from making me happy. _If_ he wanted to see me happy, then he had to let me go home and leave me alone for the rest of my life. I didn't need his protection or his love for that matter.

But Liontail did leave his bedroom and let me at least have some peace. I sat down on the floor with my back against the wall, curled up like a ball, and just let the tears stream down my cheeks. I had never cried so much since I found out that my parents had died in a car crash. I was supposed to be in the car too, but for some reason I began having migraine and had to stay at home.

Now I knew why I had the migraine, but I just hated myself even more for urging my parents not to skip the birthday party they were going to because of me. Damian didn't know this and I didn't want him to know it either. He would just hate me even more and think that it was my entire fault that his… well, _our_ parents died.

I grabbed my Ipod from Liontail's desk, plugged the earphones in my ears, and turned up the music, letting it fill the silence in the room and replace my thoughts with sweet, calming lyrics.

**Marak's POV:**

"Father, I need to–" My voice was cut off when Petra, who was covering my father's lifeless body, turned her head to me and looked at me with tearful eyes.

"I'm so sorry, dear," she said and calmly approached me. "He… He fell asleep and…"

I ignored her and approached my father anyway. I had been prepared for this day for so long, but now that it had actually happened… It felt mind-numbing. I wanted to cry, but I knew that my father wouldn't want me to mourn over his death. He would want me to focus on my own life and my future wedding as well as coronation.

"Oh, father…" I said and sighed. I couldn't speak right now and just gently stroke his cheek, brushing away some of his characteristic dark mane. My mother's favourite trait – next after his golden eyes of course. "I'll make you proud, dad. Remember that."

I gave him a light kiss on his forehead and covered him with the blanket again. I felt an agonizing pain in my stomach, but I knew that I didn't have time to mourn. I had to plan my wedding, because in only three months the day would come where I had to marry Meika, who hated me more than anything now.

"You want to be alone?" Petra asked worriedly.

I shook my head. "Give my father a proper burial and–" I bit my lip, because I was reminded of how Meika ignored me. "Tell Meika when our wedding is."

Petra nodded understandingly, but before she left she gave me a hug and I bent down so she could stroke my cheek gently like she always did. She told me to get some rest, because I was going to need it the next couple of days. She was right. Not only did I need some rest, but I also needed to think about how I was going to get Meika's forgiveness.

"Petra, you know what happened today?" I asked as she finally let go of me.

Of course she shook her head. She had been with my father all day, taking care of him and keeping him company.

"I almost _hit_ Meika," I said, feeling so ashamed of myself. "She… hates me. Especially, now that I sent her brother back after only five minutes with him. I know I have to be patient, but she's the last Moonchild. If she gets hurt or dies before we get an heir, then… then her race will be extinct and soon the elves will be extinct too, and–"

"Shh…" Petra hushed to calm me down. "She'll forgive you, just see. Now go back to your fiancée and _talk_ with her. I know she's a bit of a handful, but she's just scared and lonely. Just imagine how you would feel if you had to live in the human world forever and wasn't allowed to see your family. Then you will know what to do and say to her."


	7. Anxious

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 7! :)_**

**_I hope you like it and please review!_**

**_Oh, and AiramS - now you can stop bugging me until I'd written this chapter! xD_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 7:

**Meika's POV:**

Liontail didn't bother to wake me up even though he had been sleeping sleeping on a mattress on the floor next to his bed all night. He wanted me to sleep in his bed after what happened last night and reluctantly I allowed myself to fall asleep. I didn't trust him and wished that he was dead, but as long as I was locked up inside this bedroom I couldn't flee. I had considered taking my own life, just to cause him pain and to get away, but I couldn't get myself to do it and was afraid of what would happen if I did it.

However, Petra returned to the bedroom with new, beautiful, and handmade summer dresses, and helped me get dressed to breakfast. Since that night where Liontail almost hit me I hadn't said a word and didn't feel like it either. What was the point? They wouldn't listen to me, they wouldn't let me out, and they defiantly didn't care about my feelings anyway!

"Have Marak told you about his father?" Petra asked me though.

I looked confusedly at her. Why would he tell me about his father? And why was she calling him by Marak instead of Liontail. He wasn't king yet… or was he?

"Oh…" Petra sighed and went closer to me. "I better tell it then. His father… he died last night. Now he's the king."

I gasped. I couldn't believe it. King Marak was dead and now Liontail had become king. A part of me felt bad for ignoring _Marak_ like that last night, but now I understood why Petra told me that our wedding was in exactly three months.

"Where is Marak now?" I asked worriedly.

"He is at court – distracting himself with work and planning your wedding," Petra answered and sighed heavily. She was obliviously sad about the king's death too. "Meika, I've heard what happened last night – between you and Marak – and you should know something before you continue hating him. He's feeling so ashamed of how he reacted. No Goblin has ever hurt their fiancée or wife, and he doesn't want to be the first one who does. He loves you, but he's just so… stressed out right now."

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down, because my heart was racing and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to be there for Marak, but I was still angry at him for tossing my brother out and almost hitting me. But then again… I had hit him too (a lot!) and he didn't complain about that.

Maybe I _should_ forgive him and at least try to be his friend if I couldn't prevent our wedding from happening? Yes, it was the right thing to do.

"Please, take me to him." I said.

Petra smiled weakly, but she gladly took me to the courtroom where I saw a whole flock of Goblins talking with each other and their new king about upcoming building projects. I could almost feel how much in pain Marak was right now just by looking at him and wanted to comfort him. Maybe I had inherited my birth mother's caring and loving ways?

"Marak!" I called.

Marak immediately took his eyes away from the blueprints in his hands and looked confusedly at me, wondering why I was talking to him and had left his bedroom to see him instead of running away when I had the chance.

But I truly did want to talk with him and therefore I ignored my fear to the other Goblins and calmly approached him.

"Why didn't you tell me that your father died?" I asked worriedly.

Marak sighed heavily and took me a few feet away from the others so we could talk in private. He looked so devastated even though he was hiding it from everyone and that only made me feel worse about ignoring him.

"Why should I? You don't care about me or my people. You hate me and just want to go home," Marak said, making me feel guiltier about what I said to him. He was right. Why did I care? He was a monster and he… he loved me unconditionally. "Meika, you don't have to act nice to me."

"But I'm not…" I said. I couldn't believe what I was saying. Was I beginning to care about him? I shook my head a bit and took his hands in mine. They were so warm and rough, but still soft. "I do care about you, Marak. And… I'm truly sorry about your father. He was a good man even though I didn't know him that well. But I know how it feels to lose someone and…"

I sighed and shook my head again. I didn't know what else to say without beginning to cry of the memory of my adoptive parents' death. But Marak didn't need to hear more. He just needed a hug and I gladly gave him one. Just because he was a monster didn't mean that he didn't have feelings too or that he couldn't mourn.

"I'm happy that you had the courage to come here and comfort me – despite the fact that we scare you and what I did – but you shouldn't be worrying about me right now," Marak said stubbornly. He might be a Goblin, but he was still a guy and hid his pain to me. "Go eat your breakfast and if you want to you can join me here."

"Aren't you hungry too?" I asked.

Marak's stomach did growl a little so he agreed to eat breakfast with me, but only for a couple of minutes. He had so much work to do today and also tomorrow so I had to entertain myself the next few days. But now that I had overcome my fear and finally left his bedroom, then I didn't want to go back to it again. I wanted to meet some of the other wives here and hear how they felt about living in this odd place. Had they been kidnapped too? Did they hate living here? And how did they feel about sleeping with a Goblin?

Though, before I could visit them I had to keep Marak company for a little while and make sure that he was doing fine. I felt like I _needed_ to and I actually wanted to get to know him. What kind of interests did a Goblin have? How were they able to love a girl/woman so fast and say those three words and actually mean it? I had so many questions to him, but he had too little time to answer them and maybe he couldn't answer all of them.

"Why do you eat lamb to every dinner you have?" I asked confusedly, completely forgetting the other and more important questions I had.

Marak chuckled and drank some of his water. He had finished his meal a couple of minutes ago, while I was still only half-finished.

"We… just love lamb," he said and leaned back in his chair. "You'll get used to it eventually, but until then I'll get Petra to fetch some of that disgusting fast-food that you like so much."

"Oi! It's not disgusting! Well… maybe it is to some, but a pizza is _not_ disgusting," I exclaimed and finally finished my meal. I leaned closer to Marak and narrowed my eyes, trying my best to look angry. I failed miserably and only made Marak chuckle even more. "Don't laugh of me! I'm actually serious!"

"Serious? Is that what you call that facial expression?" He pointed towards me with those long nails and chuckled once more.

I nodded and Marak leaned closer to me, liking his lips playfully. I became a little anxious for what he was going to say or do to me, but I was too dazed by his golden eyes to move away. It felt like he was compelling me even though he wasn't saying a word.

But Marak hesitated a bit for some reason and looked like he was unsure whether he should pull away or not. However, I was curious to try something out, but I might regret doing it. Hesitantly, I leaned even closer to Marak and our lips almost touched when some of his minions suddenly burst in to the living room, because they needed his help. Marak growled, clearly annoyed that he didn't get to kiss me, but he got up and followed his minions to wherever they were going.

Of course I couldn't help but feel disappointed, because I wondered how it would be like to kiss a Goblin. He might be a good kisser even though he didn't look that appealing to kiss. It felt weird though to know that I almost _kissed_ a real Goblin and then the king himself. Then again… the fact that I even was beginning to have feelings for him, when I hated his guts only yesterday and wished him dead this very morning, was a very big thing.

Sadly, it didn't change the fact that I had to marry him in three months, that his father was dead, and that I was going to give birth to his son. I also still had no control of my powers and wondered if I should stay or flee now that I had the chance. Marak had completely forgotten to take me back to my bedroom and hadn't cast the leash-spell either. I could just run away right now and here and never look back. So why was I still sitting here? Why didn't I run away?

**Marak's POV:**

"You really think she'll stay?" Zato asked firmly.

He had always had little faith in Meika, but I didn't and I was sure that she wouldn't try to run away. Not after what almost happened in the living room. She had changed and hopefully didn't see me as a monster anymore, but a little like herself.

"Yes, I do," I said and tightened my grip on my throne. I was anxious and impatient and wondered when Meika would enter the courtroom. Well _if_ she chose to stay. "But _if _she chooses to–"

"Marak!" Petra called.

I quickly approached her, worried of what she might say to me, and took a deep breath to calm my nerves down. The last few days had been really tough. I didn't expect Meika to be such a handful – let alone that she would resist as much as she had.

"Meika is gone! I've looked everywhere, but she–" Petra bit her lip and sighed heavily.

It felt like my heart was breaking, because I didn't expect this to happen at all. I was so sure that Meika would stay, but Zato was right. It was in her nature. Of course she didn't want to live a life down here – far away from the nature she loved so much.

"It's alright, Petra. I'll… find her!" I said and began looking for Meika.

The Door was still locked so she couldn't go out that way, but I had to think about her powers too. I wasn't quite sure of what a Moonchild was able to do yet so if she managed to remove the symbol and trick the Door into opening itself to her, then I was not just in deep trouble. I was screwed.

However, when I finally found Meika I was surprised to see that she wasn't even near the Door. She was in one of the apartments, holding Zato's infant son in her arms and laughing of something with Zato's wife Erica. They were both quite surprised to see me here, but not as surprised as I was to see Meika here.

"Your majesty! We were just talking about you," Erica said, smiling brightly. "Meika told me that you're working on a new project. I hope it's going well."

I nodded, but didn't say a word at first. I had to realize what had just happened. Meika had left the living room, yes, but only to go to visit one of the other wives. I didn't know if I should laugh, feel proud or apologize for being so suspicious.

"You thought I ran away?" Meika asked, clearly noticing how out of breath and worried I had been when I came, and she couldn't stop herself from laughing a bit of me.


	8. King's Wife Chronicles

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 8!_**

**_I wasn't really going to update more this week, but AiramS kept pushing me (that manipulating little... xD) so here it is... just a little shorter than those I usually write._**

**_I hope you like it and please review! :D_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 8:

**Meika's POV:**

It amused me to see Marak like that when he tried to find me that afternoon. He thought I was gone or that I was trying to run away, but I _did_ almost flee. I went to the Door and stood there for a couple of minutes, wondering if I should flee or stay. I chose to stay for now, but I made a deal with myself. If Marak ever did anything to hurt me or treated me wrong, then I would leave him. Until then I was going to give him a chance and try not to destroy everything in his bedroom.

However, even though Marak offered me a new bedroom, then I turned his offer down. I didn't want to share the same bed with him, but I wanted him to be near, because then I wouldn't feel so lonely and he was the only Goblin I sort-of-trusted here. Therefore, Marak was also forced to sleep on the mattress the next couple of months, but he said he didn't mind it. He was just happy that I was still here and tried to help him instead of making his life more difficult than it already was.

Sadly, Marak had to work a lot today and therefore I had to go to bed alone. I couldn't fall asleep so instead I ended up walking around his bedroom, looking curiously around and examining almost every object in there. Marak seemed to love the Victorian Era, because his bedroom's interior was filled with old furniture from the 19th century. I also noticed that he loved to read and had more than hundred books in his study room.

The most of the books were written in the Goblin's language, but I managed to find books in English too and I even found a book named the King's Wife Chronicles where I saw my name written on one of the last pages.

"Looking at something interesting?" a voice suddenly said.

My heart and body jumped, but I turned around and saw that it was just Marak. He was smiling playfully and looked a bit worn out. I guessed that he had had a very long day, but he seemed more focused on something else rather than to get some sleep.

"I couldn't sleep," I said and handed him the book I was looking in. "What is this precisely?"

Marak looked hesitantly at me and at the page with my name on it. But he closed the book and used his magic to place it on the top shelf as if he didn't want me to know what was written in it. It bugged me, because I thought I had earned his trust today when I didn't leave his home.

"I'll tell you about it after our wedding," he said tiredly and pulled me close to him. He had to bend his head down, because he was so much taller than me, and swung his arm around my waist. I blushed. I knew what he wanted to do, but now… now I wasn't feeling so curious anymore. "Meika, you know what I like the most about you?"

Marak looked carefully at my face, gently stroke my cheeks, and looked like he wanted that kiss right now and here. But just as he leaned down to my lips I quickly ducked to his surprise and felt my cheeks become warm and red, while Marak looked puzzled.

"We… um… we should go to bed," I suggested and began heading towards the doorway between his bedroom and study room. But Marak wasn't giving up that easily. He grabbed my hand, pinned me to the wall, and leaned down to kiss me again. I panicked and slapped him across his face, making him take a step back and look worriedly at me. "I-I'm… Sorry!"

I almost fled back to his bedroom, pulled the blanket over me, and tried to take some deep breaths to calm my heart down. My heart was racing; my cheeks were burning, and I wanted to cry out of the frustration I was feeling. Why did I let Marak believe that I liked him _that_ way when I didn't? Why?

Now Marak was probably hurt or maybe he thought I was playing with his emotions to get more freedom. Whatever he was thinking right now, then it kept him from joining me in his bedroom. He stayed in the study room, but for how long I didn't know. I just knew that when I woke up the next morning and tried to leave his bedroom that he had cast a spell on the door again, because I wasn't able to leave it. He was probably mad at me and it was all because I didn't want him to kiss me.

"I'm sorry about that, but I need to talk with you without anyone disturbing us…" Marak said tiredly.

I turned to him and could see dark rings under his eyes. He hadn't slept all night. I sighed heavily and sat down on his bed, while Marak wandered around in his bedroom like a wounded lion. I could see that his tail was moving left and right constantly, almost as if he was going to attack me.

"Is this about last night, because if it is…" I bit my lip, worried of what might happen now.

But Marak looked at me and the worried expression in my face. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and sat down next to me, flexing his fingers and rubbing his tired eyes.

"I try to understand you, but… maybe I'm just expecting too much from you," he said and scratched his dark hair a bit. "I just thought you… You're confusing me, Meika. You know that?"

I nodded and put my arms around my legs, curling myself up like a ball. I was confusing myself sometimes and didn't know what to think about anything anymore.

"I'm sorry if I made you think I… well, I was just curious yesterday," I said. "It's kindda embarrassing, but I wanted to know how it would be like to… you know, kiss a Goblin."

Marak raised an eyebrow and looked wonderingly at me. He was really confused now, but also amused and couldn't help but chuckle.

"But if you want to know how it feels like, then why did you flee?" he asked curiously.

I had no good answer for that, so I just shrugged and turned my head to hide my flushed cheeks.

**Marak's POV:**

That girl was just full of surprises. She could make me feel so dumb and still I couldn't be angry at her. But she wasn't the only one who was full of surprises and if Meika really wanted to feel how it felt like to kiss a Goblin, then I wasn't going to keep her from experiencing it. I told her to close her beautiful eyes for a moment and turn her head to me. She did it hesitantly, but she did it nonetheless and I calmly leaned closer to her for the third time.

However, just before our lips touched she peeked and her eyes widened. But it was too late. Our lips had collided and the kiss was nothing like I expected. The feeling of her soft lips against mine sent a shiver down my spine and made the lion in me roar of satisfaction.

Meika seemed to enjoy this moment as much as I did, but she still pulled away and looked at me as if she had just gotten her first kiss. Her face was completely flushed, her heart was racing faster than ever, and her palms were sweaty.

Instinctually, she rubbed her palms in her dress and took a few deep breaths to calm her heartbeat down a notch. I chuckled and just stretched out on my bed. Meika on the other hand, went in to my study room and I was too tired to follow her. I simply undressed and went to bed, feeling proud of myself of managing to steal at least one kiss from my beautiful fiancée.

The few Goblins, who actually managed to steal a kiss too from a Moonchild, had written that the kiss was nothing like they had ever felt before. I had the power of a supernova and you would feel the most overwhelming sensation. It would feel like you had gone to Heaven and now I knew for sure that they weren't just exaggerating.

Sadly, I also now knew that a Moonchild's powers were controlled by how free she was and right now she was beginning to feel freer and freer. I could see that just by looking at the mess in my bedroom before I went to sleep. Everything had been moved – except the walls and doors – and the lights were flickering rapidly.

As much as I enjoyed watching Meika smile that glorious smile of hers and was amused by her blushing cheeks, then I was afraid of what she might be able to do. Normally, a Moonchild was taught how to use his or hers power already from a very young age, but Meika didn't have anyone else.

Not anyone that I knew of anyway…

There might still be more Moonchildren out in the world, but the possibility of finding one was… well, almost non-existent. If they weren't dead or captured against their will, then they would usually travel alone and always at night time, because they could use their powers to hide in the shadows or become invisible in the light of the full moon.

Oh, dear… So many things to do, so many things to handle… I was so looking forward for the wedding to come and for Meika to release me from some of the chores I had to deal with all alone.


	9. King Daimon

**_A/N: Hii, here's chapter 9! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review!_**

**_Oh, and now I can laugh of AiramS, because she won't be able to read this chapter until tomorrow! Muhahahaha! that's what she gets for hitting me... xD_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 9:

**Meika's POV:**

I used the rest of my first month here in the Hollow Kingdom to visit the other wives and did everything to avoid Marak. I was mad at him for tricking me into letting him kiss me even though I kindda liked it. His lips were softer than I thought and the feeling was incredible. It felt like… well, it was hard to describe, but let us just say it felt _heavenly_.

However, the closer we got to our wedding the more anxious I became and I often wondered of how Damian was doing right now. Did he miss me? Did he even know that I was gone? What did he exactly know?

I wrinkled my nose. I had so many questions and not enough answers, but if I took the courage to talk with Marak and asked him my questions, then… or I could just look for the book he hid from me and try finding my answers in there.

Yes, I should do that. I nodded to myself, left Marak's bedroom, and went in to his study room – only to find Marak in there, sitting at his desk and writing in the exact same book I wanted to find. He smiled as soon as he noticed me, but I ignored him and just pretended to look for a book in English to read. I _had_ learned a few words and sentences in their language, but I still sucked and needed someone to translate for me if I wanted to read a certain book.

"Looking for anything in particular?" Marak asked behind me.

My heart skipped a beat, but I calmly turned around and caught his gazing golden eyes. He seemed curious and it wasn't just because I had been ignoring him the last few weeks. He was always curious about me and probably wanted to know what was going on in my mind right now.

"No, just…" I bit my lip and turned around, taking a random book in English from the shelf, just to get away from him. "I found it!"

But Marak didn't give up just yet and followed me to the table in the other end of the study room – far away from his desk. He took the book from me before I could even look at the title and looked at it himself. He became a bit confused and sent me a weird look.

"You're going to read an erotic novel?" he asked giggling.

I immediately blushed and looked away, feeling so embarrassed of taking a book like that. But then again… I _was_ 17. So I stood up and took the book back, glaring angrily at him.

"And what if I am?" I asked firmly.

That shut Marak up. He went back to his desk, but while he did I quickly went back to the bookshelf and switched the book to another one that wasn't filled with steamy sex-scenes. It didn't really surprise me that Marak owned books like that, because it did act like a bit of a perv sometimes, but he was also only a couple of years older than me.

"Your highness! We have a serious problem!" Zato exclaimed as he burst in to the study room and immediately got Marak's attention and mine too.

"What's wrong, Zato?" Marak asked worriedly, leaving the book unwatched.

"It's-it's _him_! King Daimon is back and he's… he knows about _her_," he answered, nodding towards me and making me confused. "We managed to hide the Door, but they're going to attack if he doesn't get her back."

What? Why was a king after me? I knew I was the last of my kind, but… Marak had already claimed me as his wife. But Marak told me to stay in here and ordered Zato to get someone to look for me, while he hurried to the Door to help his men. I wanted to go with him, but the guards stopped me and just said that they weren't allowed to let me out. So instead I turned my focus to the book and tried to read what Marak had written about me.

Sadly, I'd forgotten that it was written in Goblin too so there was nothing for me to do than to wait patiently in the study room. Though, Petra hurried inside to me and told me to stay calm until the danger was over. She wouldn't tell me what was going on other than that a very powerful king named Daimon was nearby, trying to get in to get me if they didn't let me out.

"He isn't able to get inside… is he?" I asked worriedly.

Petra didn't say anything, but just looked at me with her worried old grey eyes. She looked frightened too and that didn't exactly calm me down. What the hell was going on? I didn't like this at all and tried to leave the study room up to several times, succeeding at the fourth time. I ran down the long halls and stopped shortly when I was running down the stairs, because I noticed Marak, arguing with a man, who looked oddly familiar.

The man was dressed like a king, had jet-black hair, deep-blue eyes, and pale skin… just like me. Could he be a relative? Or did every Moonchild have those features? I tried to sneak a little closer to them without getting caught, but the man noticed me and a bright smile spread on his lips. Marak on the other hand, turned completely pale and was probably pissed too, because I didn't stay in the study room as he told me to.

"Meika, don't be scared," the man said in a weird language that I actually understood. It sounded like a mixture of Latin, English, and French, and then something else I couldn't put a word on. "Don't you remember me? It's me – Daimon."

I was about to say that I didn't recognize the name when Petra suddenly came and tried pulling me back to the study room. However, King Daimon wasn't going to let that happen and quickly ran towards me, pushing Petra easily away from me. I looked worriedly over at Marak, who seemed worried about other things than our safety. Was he hiding something from me?

"Daimon, do not do this to me! I _need_ her," Marak said. "We're supposed to marry in two months!"

Daimon turned around and glared angrily at him. "A better reason to why I should save her from monsters like you! She belongs with us. With me…"

He looked at me again and smiled. He wanted to touch my cheek, but I ducked and ran downstairs to Marak. I didn't know this creep and he shouldn't call the Goblins for monsters. I knew that I had said it myself only a month ago, but I was just scared and didn't understand how kind-hearted they were. They looked out for each other and-and they were so full of love and compassion.

"Why is he after me, Marak?" I asked anxiously.

Marak opened his mouth to speak, but Daimon calmly went back down to us and he was smirking arrogantly, because he knew the answer to my question.

"Do tell it, Marak. Tell her why _you're_ not letting her go home to her only _family_!" he said teasingly.

Family? So I _was_ related to this man! I didn't know why, but… there was just something different about him. It was like he had changed even though I didn't remember ever seeing him before now. I looked up at Marak's face though and could see that he sure enough _was_ hiding something from me.

"Meika, please go back upstairs," he said firmly. "I'll handle this."

"Don't go too far away though," Daimon said giggling. "I'm going to take you home right away."

I hesitated for a moment, but I knew that Marak would be safe. All of his guards were here, while Daimon was alone. Therefore, I went back upstairs to the study room with Petra and hid with her in a safe-room between the study room and my former bedroom (the one I trashed). She told me to be quiet and to _stay_ here with her, but this time I wasn't going to run away again.

"He mentioned that he was my only family…" I whispered, while I rubbed my hands in my lap anxiously. "Is he… my brother?"

Petra looked at me, but she didn't want to answer, which only confirmed my suspicion. I had a biologic big brother and that meant that I wasn't the last of my kind anyway. Marak had lied to me!

"He didn't know, Meika," Petra said though. She could tell that I had found the connection between Daimon and I and lowered her voice before she continued. "We all thought that you were the last, but… some of them must have gotten away. There's a reason why Moonchildren are so hard to find."

"But what about my parents? Why did they leave me like that?" I asked, but Petra just shushed me because she heard noises coming from the study room.

I heard them too. It sounded like footsteps and for a moment I thought it was Marak, but then I heard his voice. My _brother's_ voice. He was calling my name playfully and didn't seem to be in a rush. Had Marak let him take me?

But before I could ask Petra of what we should do, then the door to the safe-room was suddenly opened and Daimon stepped inside. However, Petra attacked him and told me to run while she kept him busy. I did run immediately, but Daimon escaped Petra's trap and avoided her attack, and quickly grabbed my arm with one hand, while he used the other one to spell-bind Petra. She couldn't move at all, but just stood there like a statue.

"What did you do to her?" I asked worriedly.

"Nothing lethal, of course," Daimon said. "She'll just be paralyzed for a while. Not that you should worry about her, because you're safe now. I promised our parents that I would take care of you and I'm going to keep that promise."

"But-but-but what about Marak?" I asked. "He… he loves me."

Daimon snorted. "He's a monster, Meika. He and his kind are the reason to why we have to leave our home and hide like cowards."

"No! He's been nothing but kind to me. And why are you acting like this? I thought Moonchildren were good and kind-hearted…"

He glared angrily at me. "We are, but the others who hunt us aren't. Didn't Marak take you against your will? Isn't he forcing you to marry him – only to have his child?"

He was and he had, but he was just following his traditions. But I wasn't a Goblin. I was a Moonchild and I needed my freedom. I couldn't stay down here forever. OMG! What was I supposed to do? I wanted to stay, but Daimon… he was my brother and he knew why our parents had left me.

"Meika, please," he begged. "I don't want to lose you again. You're my baby sister, for God's sake! Marak and the others will soon wake up and…" He bit his lip and sighed heavily. "Don't make me force you to go with me."

I looked at Petra, who still just stood there, and then I heard Marak's voice downstairs, calling my name. He was on his way. I didn't want to leave him though, because I didn't know Daimon. I only knew that we were siblings and Moonchildren. Therefore, I stayed where I was, but that only pissed Daimon off. He placed his index and middle finger on my forehead and looked me in my eyes.

"I'm sorry Meika, but you leave me no choice…" he said and before I could say anything everything went completely black.

I could only hear faint voices. Someone was calling my name, while someone else was saying strange words that I had never heard before, but I still recognized them and they made me feel… calm.


	10. Months? Years? Decades?

**_A/N: Here's chapter 10! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review! _**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 10:

**Marak's POV:**

"Marak! Marak, please calm down!" Petra yelled at me.

How was I supposed to calm down when Daimon kidnapped my fiancée from my own kingdom? I should have been there for her, I should have–

"Your Highness, we think we've found the place where he has taken her," Zato said, replacing my anger with hope for that I would be able to see Meika again. I stopped looking through my old spell books and hurried over to Zato. "We're not sure, but we believe they're hiding near the Stonehenge."

Of course! It was a great hiding place for Moonchildren, but even if we went to the place, then we still wouldn't be able to get Meika back. Their power was much more powerful there than anywhere else. It was a kind of sanctuary to them like Hallow Hill was a sanctuary to us.

"What do you want us to do?" Zato asked.

I closed my eyes and sat down on the nearest chair. I had to think about what I had to do. Meika was my fiancée and therefore _I_ had to rescue her. Of course Zato, Petra, and the others would protest and say that I had to be careful. I wasn't married and had no heir to the throne. If I died then my kingdom would be without a king and fall apart.

"I want to arrange another meeting with Daimon," I said after a while and looked at their worried faces. "Sent him a temporary peace-offering and find a place where both of us won't have the upper-hand. I don't want to harm him. I just want Meika back safely."

Zato nodded understandingly and left my messy study room. I turned my full attention to Petra, who seemed to have something on her mind. She was probably wondering how I was able to remain so calm and reasonable when Goblins loved to get revenge.

"You're wondering about why I'm taking a slow approach," I said more than asked. Petra nodded and calmly approached me. "Usually I wouldn't let a man like Daimon get away easily with stealing my fiancée, but I know that Meika doesn't want me to hurt him or anyone else."

"A wise choice, dear," Petra said, smiling weakly to me. "You're going to become a great king. Just like your father was."

I smiled weakly too and felt the comfort of her hand on my shoulder. She hugged me and let me have some peace, while she made dinner and helped around in the kingdom. What would I do without her? She might be short and old, but she was full of love, compassion, and she was always loyal.

However, as much as I cared about Petra's help, then I had to focus on getting my fiancée back. I had to think of a way to earn Daimon's trust and get his blessings to marry Meika.

**Meika's POV:**

"_Mei… Mei, wake up,_" someone said somewhere in the dark. I opened my eyes hesitantly and immediately saw two deep-blue eyes in front of me, staring curiously at me. My sight was blurry in the beginning, but after a while I was able to sit up properly and saw that I was lying on a beautiful four-poster bed in an even more beautiful French-inspired bedroom. "You like it?"

I nodded, completely forgetting what my _biologic_ big brother had done, and oddly enough I didn't feel scared of being here. I felt safe, but that only confirmed what Daimon had told me. He _was_ my brother and sadly, also my only family.

However, I calmly left the bed and just went to the window. I missed seeing the nature around us and enjoyed the feeling of the sun on my face. Oh, how I missed the sun! Daimon joined me at the window and put his arms around me. I could _sense_ how much he missed me and I wondered how long he had been looking for me. Was it months? Years? Decades?

"When did you find out that you were a Moonchild?" Daimon asked worriedly.

"I…" I bit my lip and thought back at the time where Marak told me what I was. "A few weeks ago. Marak told me what I was and I talked with his father… he knew our mother."

Daimon turned me around and gently stroked my cheek. He looked like he had been waiting eagerly to see me for so many years and now that I was here he almost couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it either. I actually had a brother and on the first day I met him he just kidnapped me and took me back to his- well, _our_ home.

"Meika, I know you have tons of questions to ask me about our kind, our parents, and of course also your powers, but… could we please just forget these things for a moment? You have no idea of how long I've been waiting for this day. To meet you."

"But I _need_ answers. I need to understand why I was left in an alley, while you…" I stopped myself before I offended him and shook my head.

Daimon opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by a young woman with platinum blonde hair, ice blue eyes, and pale skin. I could sense that she was a Moonchild too and by the way Daimon looked at her, I could guess that they were in love.

"Daimon, we've just received a letter from the Goblins," she said. "King Marak wants to arrange a meeting with you. Alone."

"Of course he wants that…" Daimon muttered angrily and sighed. "But I'll handle this, Isadora. Could you please show Meika around while I do that?"

Isadora nodded and kindly greeted me. She told me that she was my brother's wife and therefore my sister-in-law. It felt weird to talk with another Moonchild, but Isadora wasn't like my brother. She understood that I was scared and actually answered some of my questions. She told me about how the Moonchildren had fled from one country to another the last many decades, hiding from Demons, Humans, Goblins, and many other creatures. It had become like a witch-hunt.

"When will I be able to see Marak?" I asked her, while we walked through the beautiful kingdom.

The kingdom was like a forest and filled with flowers, trees, and bushes. The flowers were blooming, but as much as I wanted to just dance and forget my worries, then I couldn't stop thinking about Marak and felt bad for not listening to him when he told me to stay in his study room the first time.

"I don't know, but I promise I'll talk with Daimon about it," Isadora said and smiled weakly to cheer me up. It really did help me to talk with her, but at the same time then I didn't know her as well as I knew Marak or Petra. "Do you love him?"

I stopped walking and looked at her. Did I love Marak? I liked him, yes, but… I didn't know whether I loved him or not. But then again… how was I supposed to know if I loved him? I was only 17 and had never been in love before.

"How do you know if you're in love with somebody? I mean how do you know that you are in love with Daimon?" I asked.

"That's a hard question… There isn't only one answer, but you'll know when the time comes," Isadora answered. She noticed Daimon leaving and it looked like it worried her. I didn't blame her. Every time Marak left his kingdom I also became worried for his safety and didn't want him to get hurt. "Let's get something to eat. I'm sure you want to taste what we eat here."

I actually did want to taste what Moonchildren ate and I also just wanted to eat something else besides lamb. However, the food here was just as odd as the food the Goblins ate. They ate a lot of fruit and vegetables, but instead of lamb they ate fish – though, Isadora told me that they only ate fish once a week, because they were mostly vegetarians. I loved meat, because I was so used to eat it every day, but I did like what they served and could defiantly get used to this lifestyle.

Though, when it became late and I had to go to bed, I couldn't really fall asleep. I lay awake for hours and hours and missed having Marak next to my bed. He made me feel safe and would – when I didn't ignore him – sometimes talk with me until I fell asleep.

Mostly, he would tell me about his day or about his childhood, but there had been times where we talked about much more serious things like how we felt about the world and the changes in the environment. Marak was there for me even though he didn't have to and very patient too.

Instead of lying restless in my bedroom I got dressed and went down the hall to find Daimon. Maybe I could convince him into letting Marak visit me. I wanted to know for sure if I did love him or if I just liked him, because I knew that in the end I would have to choose between my brother and my fiancé. But when I found Daimon in his study room I noticed several paintings of people, who looked a lot like us. They were probably our ancestors or maybe even our parents.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Daimon asked without taking his eyes off the book he was writing in.

My heart skipped a beat, but I took a deep breath to calm my nerves down and went a little closer to him. He finally turned around and smiled weakly.

"Yes, but I… can't," I said and sighed heavily. "I miss Marak. He always made me feel secure and… What are you writing down?"

My curiosity had taken me over and I control myself. I just took the book from Daimon and turned the pages, noticing some familiar names and finding my own on a page with our family tree. Daimon and I were the last descendants of our family, who were still alive. Our cousins, aunts, uncles, and other relatives either died of natural courses or were killed. But… our mother died on my birthday, while our father died when I was thirteen.

"Family means everything to us," Daimon said. "We take care of the elderly and try to teach the children how to take care of the nature around them as much as they would take care of their own family. But… as you might know, then we get our powers from the moon and like the sun the moon is everlasting. Even if the sun rises we still feed of the moon's energy."

"So… our mother was killed because she was the next queen of our kind?" I asked worriedly.

Daimon nodded. "But it was also because they feared that _we_ would marry with another strong race and become more powerful. Luckily, mom managed to hide you before they found you and… well, you know that happened then. Butwhile you lived with the humans our dad and I tried to hide our people. This home isn't big, but at least we're safe."

He was right. I had seen the whole kingdom and it was the half of the size of Marak's kingdom. The families had to live closely together and that didn't exactly help when they had to raise so many children, who then had to continue our race.

"But then why don't you want me to marry Marak? The Goblins are strong and they'll help us."

For once Daimon didn't say a word. I remembered that he'd had a meeting with Marak earlier today and guessed that they had been talking about the exact same thing.

"Meika, we _don't_ kidnap a girl and then marry her. We marry out of love," he said after a while. "I don't want you to marry him, because _he_ loves you. You have to love him back. You understand?"

I nodded and now understood why Isadora had asked me if I loved Marak. But did I love him? Was I able to love a Goblin, whom I'd spent the first couple of days with by hating him more than anything? Even if I found out if I loved him, then I would feel bad if I wasn't allowed to see both of my brothers anymore. I still missed Damian and wished that I could turn back the time to change my mistakes.


	11. A Compromise

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 11! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review 8D_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 11:

**Meika's POV:**

"Isn't there anything fun to do around here?" I asked impatiently.

Daimon frowned, but took the last bite of his fish meal and looked over at Isadora, who was still eating her dinner. I'd been living my brother for three days and I was already bored to death. When he wasn't working – which he did almost all the time – then he was spending time with Isadora or sleeping. Of course he wanted me to do some of the royal chores too, but… it was boring too.

"It's full moon tonight so… you can go with us to the big feast," Isadora suggested. "We're going to dance at the Stonehenge too."

"The Stonehenge?" They both nodded and Daimon left the dinner table, signing me to follow him to his study room.

As soon as we entered the room I noticed Marak and ran to him as fast as I could, swinging my arms around him and hugging him tightly. I might not know whether I loved him or not, but I did care very much about him and saw him as my friend.

However, Daimon hadn't taken me to his study room to see Marak. He was actually furious to see him here, but Marak was just smirking arrogantly and happy to see me too. Though, I could feel that his heart was racing and when I looked him into his eyes I saw a bright smile form on his lips.

"I take that you miss me…" he said and gently stroke my cheek.

I did. I missed him a lot in fact – especially at night. But Daimon didn't miss Marak at all and pulled me away from him.

"You broke your promise, Marak!" he hissed, glaring angrily at him. "Give me one good reason to why I shouldn't kill you!"

Marak chuckled. Apparently, he found this amusing, but he was the only person to think that. I placed myself between the two kings and tried to remove Daimon's focus on Marak. I didn't want to lose either of them or having to choose to live with only one of them.

"Please, don't hurt him, Daimon – and Marak," I said and turned my head to him. "Why did you come here if you promised you wouldn't?"

Daimon was about to say something, but I covered his mouth and urged Marak to tell me the reason before he said something.

"I came here, because I love you. I don't care if you love me back or if you're ever going to, but I just… I just want you back," Marak said. "And I _know_ you want to be here with your brother and your kind, but I promise that I will let you visit them and they can visit you too."

I removed my hand from Daimon's mouth and let him speak. But now he didn't want to say anything and just left. I looked confusedly back and forth at the two kings and scratched my head a bit. What the hell did just happen?

"Marak, maybe we should–"

"Let me talk with him." Marak said firmly and left the study room too.

I rolled my eyes. "What the fuck is going on around here?" I hissed and crossed my arms.

"You speak with that mouth?" a soft voice said.

I turned to the doorway and blushed when I saw Isadora. But I apologized and calmly approached her, trying my best not to become angrier about this. Why did they have to keep so many secrets to me? And why wasn't _I_ allowed to make a choice of my own?

"Meika, I know this must be very frustrating to you, but you need to patient," Isadora said. "Your brother wants you to be happy, but he's afraid that Marak won't treat you right or let him see you."

"Of course he's going to treat me right! He loves me and I–"I bit my lip and stopped myself, because I was about to say something that surprised me.

"You do love him, don't you?" Isadora took my hands in hers and I blushed, because mine were getting sweaty.

"I don't know, okay! I don't know, but… I think I do… I'm not sure…" I pulled my hands back and rubbed them on my thighs. My heart was racing and I felt like… like I was going to faint. And I did.

I didn't know how long I was unconscious, but I was woken up by Marak and he looked more than just worried. But I remembered what happened before I fainted and immediately pushed him away. I was embarrassed, confused, and needed some time alone to think about how I felt about him.

"Where are you going?" Marak asked worriedly.

"Somewhere," I said, walking out of the study room and back to my bedroom. Daimon tried stopping me too on the way, but I also pushed him away from me. "Leave me alone!"

No one said anything, but just looked confusedly at me as if I'd done something outrageous. In a way I had, but I didn't care. I _needed_ peace, because I was beginning to feel like they were smothering me. They wanted to control my life and took my freedom and own will away by doing so. But I noticed that every painting, every sculpture, and every other form for decoration in the hallway had fallen down and couldn't help but fear that I was the one who had caused it to happen.

**Marak's POV:**

"Haven't you taught her how to control her powers?" I asked firmly.

Daimon shook his head, but for once he didn't protest. He was too puzzled by Meika just did to do anything, but stare at the messy hallway in front of us. None of us had seen it coming, but now that I thought about the way Meika and we had behaved, then I could easily understand why she left like she did. She was feeling trapped and needed to go somewhere where she could breathe.

"This is beginning to get out of hand," I admitted. "Even for kings like us. We both have traditions, rules, and responsibilities. We just… have to go on a compromise with our two kingdoms in a way that works."

"Normally, I would ignore a proposal like that from a Goblin like you, but we're doing this for Meika and as hard as it as for me to admit it, then you're right," Daimon said hesitantly. I couldn't help but laugh. Daimon was just as stubborn as Meika, but he was a great king nonetheless and I admired how well he had taken care of his kingdom when you thought of how endangered his people was. "Don't laugh of me, Goblin! Or else I'll take my blessings back and let you die as a lonely man."

Daimon managed to walk past all the mess on the floor and went downstairs, while I went to Meika's bedroom. I didn't want to disturb her, but I did want to know if she was alright and therefore I used my magic to make the door transparent. Meika couldn't see me now, but I could see her and she sitting on the floor, crying her heart out.

Immediately, I opened the door and went inside, but Meika used her powers accidentally to make a lamp fly towards me. She was upset and out of control. Though, I tried ignoring the pain like I always did and went inside anyway. She _needed_ me whether she liked it or not.

"Why are you crying? Are you mad at me?" I asked worriedly.

Meika glared angrily at me. She was _defiantly_ mad at me, but I wasn't quite sure of what that had ticked her off this time.

"Of course I'm mad at you! It's-"She shook her head and tried wiping the tears away, but they continued streaming down her red cheeks.

I'd never seen her so… freaked out before. Not even in the first days she spent in my home where she trashed all of my things.

"You want me to leave?"

Suddenly, Meika became quiet. Almost too quiet. She looked up at me as if I'd said something horrible and sighed heavily.

"You don't get it, do you?" she whimpered.

Get it? How could I? First she was happy to see me, then she became furious, and now… now she was crying. It didn't make any sense!

"I'm in love with you, you fool!"

What? Now I understood absolutely nothing. "But why are you then crying? You don't _want_ to love me?"

Meika didn't say anything now. She was confused. She didn't know if she wanted to love me or not, but she did. But as I said before: I didn't care if she loved me or not. I just want her as my wife.

"This is so… frustrating," she said after a while. "My brother hates my fiancé, my fiancé hates my brother and I don't know if I want to love him, because loving him meant becoming his wife and having his child and I don't think I'm ready to do those things…"

"Oh…" I sighed, but sat down next to her. She was freaking out; because she was nervous and probably thought that I had all these high expectations to her. However, the only thing I expected her to do was to be a good mother to our child. "Meika, there is something I forgot to tell you… about you producing an heir. Normally, it takes about 10 years for the queen to get pregnant, so you won't necessarily become pregnant until you're in your mid-twenties."

Meika's eyes widened and she looked completely baffled as if I'd just taken a huge burden off her shoulders. She immediately jumped on me, hugging me tightly and even kissing me on my face. I chuckled and rolled her over on her back, holding her down and steady. I wanted to kiss her so badly, but I had to do it properly without surprising her like I did the last time.

"Say the magic words and I'll let you go…" I teased.

Meika blushed, but for the first time in a long time I actually heard her laugh. Her laughter sounded like sweet music in my ears and left me wanting to hear more.

"I love you, Marak," she said and made my whole world spin around. I couldn't believe that she had fallen in love with me. I thought she wouldn't be able to love me until we'd been married for at least five years, but it had happened and I was so grateful for being the first Goblin, who succeeded in making a Moonchild fall in love with him. "What are you thinking about?"

I smiled and cupped her beautiful face in my hands. She smiled back and put her arms around my neck, just looking at me with those wonderful eyes.

"You. Only you," I said and gently kissed her. "But does this mean that I'm allowed to move back up on _my_ bed?"

Meika didn't answer me, but just giggled, rolled me over on my back and kissed me passionately. I could feel her heart beating fast against mine and I just closed my eyes to enjoy this precious moment, because we never knew what might happen to the both of us in the near future…


	12. The Dark Shadow

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 12! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review! 8D_**

**_And thanks for the reviews, story alerts, and favorites! they make me happy on a bad day :)_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 12:

**Meika's POV:**

A part of me knew that these new feelings for Marak would make my new life so much easier, but my brother told me something before I went with my fiancé back to Hallow Hill. He said that I should be more careful than ever now that I was in love, because love intensified a Moonchild's powers and mine were already out of control as it was.

But he gave me some of his books and a couple of things that belonged to our parents so I could try learning how to control my powers and get to know our parents a little better. I only knew that our mom used to be the crown princess of the Moonchildren, while my dad was a very romantic elf. I hated the fact that I never had the chance to meet them, but I was happy to have had such great adoptive parents instead. Though, I didn't know how or when I was going to see Damian again…

However, when Marak and I returned safely to the Hollow Kingdom and Marak had announced to his people that he had found me, he took me to his study room (more likely _carried_ me) and told me that he wanted to show me something. I wondered if he was going to show me the King's Wife Chronicles, but he found a golden box instead and took out a beautiful necklace with a moonstone on it. I was about to say something, but Marak kissed me and sat down next to me at the table.

"My father took this necklace from your mother a long time ago," he said and handed it to me. "It belongs to you."

I blushed, but I was thankful – though a bit shy too – and tried to get used to the feelings I had for him. It was so weird and unbelievable and… well, that pretty much covered it! My first boyfriend was a Goblin and I was going to marry him in two months.

"Now I feel bad for not having any gift to you…" I said shyly as he helped me get the necklace on.

Marak just chuckled though. "Your love is enough for me," he said and made the butterflies in my stomach go crazy. He was so sweet and romantic, but he was still a bit pervy sometimes. Right now he was just sweet and romantic though. "But _if_ you do want to give me something, then–"

"I'm _won't_ sleep with you!" I interrupted, making Marak burst into laughter.

"No, that's not what I was going to say, but that's okay. You know I'm very patient," he teased. "But I would be happy if you went to court with me a little more."

I smiled. "I can do that. But only if you give me a kiss first."

Marak laughed again, but he took me up on his lap and gave me another one of those wonderful kisses that made my whole body shiver and every object in the room levitate. Of course Marak noticed this and had to stop before I trashed his study room too. I seriously needed to learn how to control my powers before I trashed the whole kingdom…

"Why must you make my life so difficult?" Marak asked teasingly.

I blushed and looked at the mess I'd made accidentally. "It's your own fault. You could just have given me a _normal_ kiss – not one that makes me, lose control of my powers!" I said.

Marak narrowed his eyes and looked at me for a moment. Suddenly, he carried me out of the study room and in to his bedroom, placing me gently on my bed. I still wanted him to sleep on the mattress next to it, because you never knew what he might do. We weren't married yet either so I didn't find it appropriate for us to sleep together. I might live in the 21st century, but I was old-fashion when it came to something like that.

"You want to practice using your powers?" Marak asked kindly.

I nodded and he found the books my brother had given me. He found the right page after a couple of minutes and then handed the book to me, because the page was written in the Moonchildren's alphabet. He could only read the index and see which page he needed to find for me.

"It says that I need to meditate three times a day for at least 15 minutes," I said. "But it also says that my powers are controlled by my emotions, like if I'm in love then the strength of my powers will increase, but if I'm happy or calm then they'll decrease."

"So I just have to keep you happy and calm?" Marak asked, smiling brightly.

I nodded and turned the page, noticing something very interesting that should keep Marak away from me at night time. "It also says that if you have sexual intercourse, then you'll lose complete control of your powers and most likely hurt someone. That's why the Moonchildren are taught how to use their powers and to control them at a very young age."

Marak snorted and and crossed his arms. He wasn't pleased about this at all, but it also meant that I needed to learn how to control my powers _before_ the wedding day came. But even though we did marry, then it didn't mean for sure that I _had_ to sleep with him. My brother would kill him if he forced me to do something I wasn't ready to do.

"That's just stupid… Oh, well! I guess I can wait," Marak said and lay down next to me on the bed. "But I'm never going to stop kissing you."

"Of course you're not," I teased, turning another page. This time I found something that made my face turn pale. "Damn it!"

Marak looked confusedly at me. "What now?"

My face became all flushed and I wondered if I should tell him what it said, because it would make him happy but in an annoying way. "It says that Moonchildren are very… um… fertile."

Of course Marak couldn't help but smile and it annoyed me so much that I actually left his bedroom, went in to his study room, and locked the door so he couldn't get inside.

**Marak's POV:**

"Marak, wake up!" Meika said, waking me up from my sleep.

I looked at the old grandfather clock and noticed that it was 3:00 AM. I sighed and looked up at her, seeing how frightened she was and how she looked worriedly around. Someone or something woke her up and it scared her. I looked around in the room and listened carefully, but I couldn't hear or see what was scaring her.

"What did you see?" I whispered worriedly.

"I'm not sure, but… I saw a dark shadow with red eyes. It was floating above me and whispering something I couldn't understand," Meika said. I crawled up on my bed and tried to comfort her. She was shivering and her heart was beating fast. "I'm scared, Marak…"

"I know, I know… but let's just find Petra. She would know if something has been here."

Meika followed me to the living room where Petra was already talking with Zato about something that caught my interest. The seal on the Door had disappeared and someone had somehow gotten inside. But how? And why? Well, I already _knew_ why. They wanted Meika, but why did they want her? Did they want to kill or marry her?

"What are we going to do?" Meika asked worriedly.

I looked down at her and could feel her hand squeeze mine. I'd never seen her so frightened before. Had she seen the dark shadow before?

"Meika, calm down," I said, kissing her gently on her cheek. It helped her to calm down, but only a little bit. "Have you ever seen it before? Maybe when you were a kid?"

Meika thought about it for a moment and by the look of how her eyes widened, I could tell that she _had_ in fact seen it, but knowing this only made her panic. I pulled her close to me again and just let her know that I was here for her and that she shouldn't be scared. Neither now or ever.

"Marak, there's something I need to tell you," Meika said and pulled away, looking so sad all of a sudden. "Last time I saw this dark shadow… I was home alone and my parents had just left and… I thought it was just a shadow then and forgot about it, because my parents died that day, but… you think it followed me to Hallow Hill?"

I nodded. It might be possible that the shadows even were responsible for her adoptive parents' death, but that still didn't explain why they were after her. Though, I did know that it had something to do with the fact that she was a Moonchild and sister of the king of the Moonchildren.

"Petra, tell the guards to search every inch of the kingdom," I ordered. "_Someone_ is here and I want him or her out!"

**Meika's POV:**

Marak was furious, but I didn't blame him. Someone was in his kingdom and the person or creature was after me. I was literally shaking, because the last couple of weeks I'd been told that nothing evil could get inside. Only very strong persons like my brother were able to break the seal and get inside, but even if they got inside then they would need to get past the guards too and this _thing_ had!

But while Marak was trying to find this thing I went back to his bedroom, locked myself inside, and sat down with my brother's spell book, looking for a powerful spell that could protect us from whatever was in our home. I knew I shouldn't leave Marak's sight, but… I feared not only my own safety, but also everyone else's and wanted to help this time.

It took me some time to find something that didn't require me to use any special ingredients, but I found a page that said "_How to banish a Shadow Creature_" and hoped that it would work. It seemed appropriate to use right now, but… it looked very difficult to do.

You had to cleanse your mind, soul, and heart for any fear or worries you might have, and be brave. That wasn't exactly easy for me to do, because I was scared of the dark. It wasn't the darkness itself I feared, but more the fear of what was hiding in the dark. But you also had to light up the room and I wasn't quite sure how to do that. I didn't know how my powers exactly worked and it frustrated me.

"_Moonchild… Moonchild, come out, come out, wherever you are…_" a playful voice said nearby, sending a shiver down my spine.

I recognized the voice and this time I actually understood it. But that meant that the shadow was _in here_ and I had been so stupid to lock the door, because I thought it would keep me safe. Clearly, it didn't. I looked around and noticed that the light in the room was starting to flicker rapidly, until it exploded and left the room completely dark.

"_What's the matter? You don't like the dark?_" the voice said.

I took a deep breath and tried not to freak out. I could do this. I could banish it and show Marak that I didn't need his help all the time. But… where the hell was this shadow hiding anyway? I got my answer when something suddenly grabbed my shoulder, swinging me down on the floor, and sitting on my stomach so I couldn't get up. His skin was ice cold and his red eyes were glowing in the dark, looking straight down at me.

"Let go of me!" I hissed angrily, trying to focus on my anger instead of the fear.

"Oh, no can do, sweetheart… my master always get what he wants," he said but before he could say anything else I heard Marak try to open the door. He couldn't, but it wasn't because it was locked. The shadow just laughed though and leaned down to whisper into my ear. "I'm sure my master will be pleased to finally meet you."


	13. The Shadow Realm

**_A/N: Hi, here's the next chapter! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review! _**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 13:

**Meika's POV:**

The shadow knocked me unconscious and disappeared with me before Marak could rescue me. For a moment I thought he'd killed me, but I could still hear strange noises around me – whispering shadows that talked about something I couldn't understand. It all came out as a hissing sound as if a snake was right next to my ear and I was unable to move away from it. But someone woke me up with a splash of cold water to my face and told me in a growling tone that I should wake up.

Afraid that it might be the shadows, I prepared myself to fight and clenched my fists hard before I opened my eyes and saw two boots right next to me. But I felt a sudden pain strike my head and curled up into a ball, putting my hands on my head and trying to figure out if I was bleeding from somewhere.

Luckily, I had just hit my head or rather – _the shadow_ had hit my head – to knock me unconscious. However, the shadow became impatient and pulled me up by my shoulder, pressing his sharp nails into my shoulder and holding a firm grip on it so I couldn't get away. I had to close my eyes for a couple of minute to get used to the darkness in what looked like an old prison cellar. I could glimpse something brownish, white, and silver in the dark and quickly realized that it was the decomposed body of this cellar's former prisoner.

Immediately, I gasped and stumbled backwards, but the shadow just laughed an evil laughter and pushed me towards the door where I noticed an old staircase. It took about two minutes before we were finally upstairs and when we came upstairs I saw torches that lit up the rooms a bit. I could identify this place as a form of old castle that reminded me of a place taken out of a horror movie. I shivered by the thought and tried to see if I was the only non-shadow-creature here. I was.

"You should be thankful," the shadow said. It was the one who had knocked me unconscious and taken me from my home. Marak! Was he alright? Did he know where I was? "My master changed his mind about you so you get to live."

"What?" I exclaimed automatically and stopped walking.

The shadow growled angrily, showing his sharp teeth and his red eyes were piercing right into mine. "Did I stutter?"

I didn't say anything and just kept following him to big throne room where I saw more shadows, guarding their master. The 'master' was of course not an ordinary man or creature. He had long, white-blond hair, dark-red eyes, pale white skin, and reminded me of a ghost or a demon.

His clothes were fit for a king, but looked worn and dark. I couldn't help but look at my own clothes and noticed that I'd been dressed in a black, but beautiful, handmade dress with laces, ruffles, and fringes. In my long, jet-black hair I could feel more laces and my hair had been curled beautifully.

"So beautiful you've become over the last 17 years…" the master said, stepping down from his throne and signing for me to get closer. I didn't move. It wasn't because he was a shadow, but because my instincts told me to. I could sense all the evilness inside him and it almost overwhelmed me. "Meika, you can come to me by yourself or Rythos can force you. It's your choice."

Hell no! I stood still and just crossed my arms stubbornly. Of course I wasn't going near him and especially not when he was evil. But Rythos was physically stronger than me so I ended up standing in front of the master anyway. The way he looked at me with those dark-red eyes, sent another shiver down my spine and made my legs become weak. I struggled to keep myself up, but in one quick move the master grabbed both of my arms and held me up.

"It's funny how _one_ meeting can have such an impact on you," he said. "But then again… watching your mother die right in front of you usually has an impact on everyone."

"You-you-you killed my mom?" I gasped.

The master smirked devilishly and nodded. He almost looked proud to have done it, but it only made me furious. I lounged an attack on him and tried smashing my fist into his face, but he was much quicker than me and stopped my fist in mid-air.

"You monster!" I cried and finally fell to my knees, sobbing because _he_ was the reason to why my mom was dead.

"Stop crying, you child!" he ordered more than said.

The master yanked me up on my feet again and held me closer to his face. I could smell the stench of human or animal blood coming from his mouth. It made me nauseous and I wanted to faint, but I was too scared to slip into unconsciousness.

"I see you're wearing your mother's necklace… my father tried to get it, but a certain Goblin came first," he said. Marak's father. I forced myself to look at the master and wondered how old he was. Marak had told me that he was older than he looked like, but this guy… it was hard to say if he was 30 or 40 years old. But when the master tried to touch my necklace, his hand got burned and he cursed under his breath. "Of course…" The master smirked as if he had just realized something.

"Who are you? Why did you take me if you're not going to kill me?" I asked angrily.

"Who I am? Haven't your fiancé told you about me?" he answered teasingly.

I shook my head and he laughed loudly. I tried taking a step back, but he grabbed me by my wrist and forced me to stay where I was.

"Well, then let me enlighten you!" He smiled brightly, showing me his sharp teeth. "I… _I_ am Master Colthan – the leader of the Shadow Creatures and this…" He waved his hand dramatically at the castle. "…is my Shadow Realm."

I snorted and looked away, trying to make him mad on purpose. It worked, but not in a good way, because he suddenly slapped so hard that I fell down on the floor. I could taste blood coming from my lower lip and wished so badly that Marak was here. He would have been furious to see that someone had hurt me.

"You should be thankful that I didn't kill you when I had the chance, _Moonchild_! I can kill you and that pathetic human brother of yours if you don't behave!" Colthan hissed angrily.

"No! Leave him out of this!" I exclaimed.

Damian didn't deserve to die. His parents didn't deserve to die either, but they did and it was all my fault. The shadows meant to kill me and killed them instead.

"What do you want from me?" I whimpered, feeling the tears swell up again.

"I…" Colthan stepped closer to me and bent down to my height. "…just want the same thing Marak wants. An heir. And with you as the princess of the Moonchildren I can finally get enough power to…" If he was going to say 'take over the world' I was going to vomit. "…become the most powerful king in the world. For too long has the humans been able to walk on this planet and suppressed every creature they come in contact with. We are forced to hide ourselves, but no more…"

Dear God… A few months ago I would have laughed and said that this was taken straight out a bad movie, but now… now I knew that all of this was very real and not just a movie you could put on _pause _or get a refund of.

"Take her back to her room and tell Arianna to give her the elixir," Colthan ordered. "If she tries to flee, then paralyze her. I don't want her to leave this castle!"

Paralyze me? I panicked and tried to run away before the guards came, but they were faster than me and forced me upstairs to a bedroom where a woman with shoulder-long dark-red hair was standing ready with a mysterious bottle. She poured its red content in a glass of water and told the guards to keep me steady, while she forced the drink down in me. It tasted bitter and even though I managed to spit some of it out, then it still had some effect on me. I felt… _different._

"What the hell is that?" I hissed, wiping the elixir away from my mouth.

"Don't worry," she said calmly and smiled friendly. For a moment I actually felt like I could trust her, but it was only for a moment. She _was_ a shadow after all and just one of Colthan's minions. "It'll help you sleep at night. Colthan wants you to be fully rested before the wedding."

"The wedding? When is it?"

The woman, who must be Arianna, didn't answer me and just smirked devilishly. Of course they were not going to tell me when the wedding was, because then I couldn't find out when the best day for me to escape was. I was trapped like an animal and I hated it.

I tried pushing away my fears and thought of someone who always helped me stay calm and who made me feel safe. Marak. Oh, how I wished he was here. I wished… that he was holding his arms around me and kissing me in that wonderful way, and found my courage to fight back.

I noticed a little light take shape in my palms and the more I focused my love to Marak the bigger the light grew. I threw the ball at one of guards, while Arianna was distracted. The shadow vanished into thin air, but before I could throw another ball of light I was suddenly paralyzed from behind. It was Arianna who did it and she didn't look happy about it.

"You may be stronger than we thought, but let's see how you fight back without your hands!" she hissed angrily and slammed the door as she left.

I couldn't move no matter how hard I tried and was forced to lie on the floor. I _could_ blink and breathe, but that didn't help me get away – especially not when the room was guarded on the inside and outside. If I tried to do something, then they would stop me.

But I was also too tired to do anything right now. I had to use a lot of my strength just to make that one ball, but at least now I knew how to make it and was able to defend myself later on. And because of that I could fall asleep safely, knowingly that Marak was probably trying to find me right now and maybe… maybe if I kept thinking about him I could lead him to wherever the Shadow Realm was.

I had a bad feeling that he wouldn't be able to find this place on Earth. Maybe it was in another dimension or actually in another realm. I sure hoped it wasn't, because then he would have a hard time finding me. I didn't understand how he'd even found me the first time when my brother kidnapped me, but now I was in another realm. That would probably make it harder for him to track me down.

However, until Marak found me I had to quit thinking about _how_ he was going to find me and instead think of what I should do _when_ he came. All I wanted to was to kiss him and remind him of how much I loved him. It still felt so weird to think anything like this when I used to hate him, but I couldn't deny my feelings to him.

_If_ I had the choice to marry either Marak or some human guy, then I would always pick Marak. He treated me like a girl should be treated – well except sometimes the dirty comments – and kept me safe. Oh, no… now I was beginning to cry again. I opened my tired eyes and sighed heavily when I realized that everything that happened, the last couple of hours, wasn't just a bad dream.

But for a moment I thought I saw Marak in front of me, calling my name and trying to get my attention. Though, I wasn't able keep myself awake and just closed my eyes again, listening to the faint sound of Marak's voice.

_Sorry, Marak. I'm sorry I left your sight_, I thought. _I want to go back in time and just force myself to stay by your side, but I made a horrible, horrible mistake._

**P.S. I'm sorry to inform you that I won't be updating more on this story this week, because of the loss of a beloved pet...**


	14. Opposites

**_A/N: Hi, I'm so sorry I haven't updated until now. _**

**_I've had a really rough week and been down the last couple of days, because of the loss of a very beloved pet of mine. _**

**_But I'm beginning to feel better and want to give you this chapter as an apology :)_**

**_I hope you like it and please review!_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 14: 

**Meika's POV:**

Arianna woke me up the next morning, removing the feeling of being paralyzed from me, and then yanking me up from the floor, only to push me right into the one person I didn't want to _feel_. I would rather be paralyzed or dead than having to spend the rest of my life with that-that murderer! Master Colthan on the other hand, seemed to have other plans on his mind, because he was smirking arrogantly when I finally dared to look at his ghost-like face.

"What you did yesterday was very… stupid," he said, showing no emotions at all. He didn't care about the fact that he had lost one of his minions. What he cared about was the fact that _I_ had banished him even though I was locked up in the room. "Nonetheless, we have a lot of things we need to do today. After all… we _are_ getting married today, aren't we?"

We _what_? But-but I'd only been there for about half a day! Colthan laughed when he saw the expression in my face, but I noticed that he was a bit stressed. Maybe he was forced to marry me today, because he was afraid that I would manage to escape before the date he had sat? That must be it. Or was it because Marak had found his whereabouts?

Whatever it was, then it annoyed him, because he was ordering his minions to hurry getting us dressed and to make sure that all the preparations for the wedding was done. Before it had become afternoon I had been dressed in a beautiful, but gothic and dark wedding dress with a matching black veil, while Colthan was dressed in a very expensive golden and dark coloured rope with a long cloak.

Of course he just _had_ to wear a crown too (that self-righteous, arrogant, and narcissistic…) and the only "fancy" thing I was given were magical chains around my wrists that stopped me from using my powers during the ceremony.

This was nothing like I expected my wedding to be like, but then again… I never even expected to marry a Shadow Creature, who only wanted to rape me so he could get an heir and rule over the humans (dear God, what had I gotten myself into?).

However, as rushed as the preparations had been, then everything seemed done and ready to be used to a gothic wedding. As much as I hated having to marry a man like Colthan, then I actually felt kindda… good about this.

Ever since Arianna had forced down more of that weird and bitter elixir in me, I'd been feeling so odd. I had a bad feeling that they were trying to poison me in a non-lethal way and I was scared that these new feelings would keep me from fighting back when I finally got the chains off.

"Master, we need to hurry! They're on their way!" one of the shadows exclaimed.

_They_? So soon? I knew Marak and my brother were two powerful kings, but was it really _that_ easy to find me? Something was wrong… I could feel it and it wasn't just the elixir that made me feel like that.

"C'mon!" Colthan hissed, forcing me over to a scary-looking priest.

Everything was happening so fast, but apparently not fast enough for Colthan. He was impatient, annoyed, and couldn't wait until the ceremony was over. Though, in the middle of the ceremony the doors to the throne room were kicked open and I saw an army of beautiful angel-like creatures burst into the room, armed with swords of light.

They looked like the complete opposites of the Shadow Creatures and even their leader – a handsome version of Master Colthan – was the complete opposite of the Shadow Creatures' leader. But… Marak wasn't there and nor was my brother. These creatures weren't here to rescue me. They were here to stop Master Colthan from getting what he wanted.

"Brother, didn't you learn anything from our last meeting?" the good leader asked, smirking of his brother's dismay.

Colthan didn't run away though. He grabbed my arm instead and held a sharp dagger very close to my throat, making his brother stop his army from getting any closer to us. I wished so badly that Marak was here right now, because the last thing I wanted to do was to die in a fight between two scary brothers, who clearly had some issues with each other!

"What are you going to do now, Danthos?" Colthan asked teasingly. "I have a Moonchild this time and you _know_ how rare they are…"

Danthos's eyes widened and took another look at me, mumbling something under his breath that sounded like a curse. But I sensed someone's presence near us and by the look of Danthos's facial expression I could confirm that _someone_ was here and it wasn't someone unknown. Colthan didn't even have the chance to turn around before this someone grabbed his neck and threw him into the wall. I quickly turned around and was relieved to see Marak here.

"Marak, stop!" I exclaimed, getting his attention before he could smash his fist into Colthan's face.

I didn't know why I told him to stop, but I felt like helping Colthan. It was the elixir Arianna had forced down in my throat. Unfortunately, Colthan noticed this and smiled brightly.

"Heron, take the chains off her!" he ordered and calmly got to his feet again.

One of the Shadow Creatures took off the chains and automatically, I hurried over to Colthan and Marak, but only to stop Marak from getting a grip on him again. I didn't want to do this or to fight the man I truly loved, but the elixir had spread inside my body like a virus and taken control of me.

"Meika, what are you doing?" Marak asked worriedly. "We're here to rescue you. Me, Danthos, and your brother. Why are you defending him?"

I shrugged and went back to Colthan even though it pained me to hurt Marak like that. "Yeah, I had a feeling that you guys would come sooner or later, so I took the liberty to poison Meika. Now she's forced to protect me and do whatever I tell her to do."

Colthan smirked devilishly, tugging me closer to his body, while Marak was clenching his fists and looking pretty pissed off. But my brother finally arrived too with his army and pushed past shadows to get closer to me. I could see by the way he was looking at me that he was scared of losing me.

"Oh, this should be good! Two equally annoying kings in my home plus my ignorant brother… who should I kill first? Hm… Meika, do me a favour and kill my brother – as punishment for ruining our wedding day."

Kill? I tried to fight against the urge to kill, but I had no control at all. I used my telekinetic powers to throw Danthos into all four walls. Hard. Luckily, Daimon tried to use his powers to make Danthos soar away from the walls before he hit them, and was stronger than I.

But while he struggled to keep Danthos from dying, Marak tried looking for a way to remove Colthan's control over me. The only way he could think of though, was to tackle me and knock me unconscious, and that was what he did. I never saw him coming and was knocked out before I could even turn my head to him.

What happened after that was very unclear to me. I heard faint noises and felt a weird prickling feeling in my arm like… like when you get a needle stuck in your arm. My eyes opened widely and I screamed loudly when I saw Marak holding the syringe that was in my arm. I hated needles! The sight of them made me wanting to cry or run away. But I couldn't get up or move, because Daimon was keeping me steady on the ground, while a badly hurt Danthos was healing his wounds.

"Shh… it's okay, Meika. It's almost done," Daimon said, comforting me like only an older brother could do. I looked around and tried to understand what was going on. I wasn't in the castle anymore, but in Marak's bedroom. "We had to get the poison out, but you're going to be fine now."

I sighed heavily and let out a little squeak, because Marak was done. He used some sort of healing cream on the place where he had stuck the needle inside and then helped me up on his bed.

It felt like everything around me was spinning and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't focus on anything properly. My body was also sore and I was completely exhausted, because I'd used so much power on trying to kill Danthos. Colthan had forgotten that I was still just a teenager and didn't know that I hadn't been taught how to control my powers yet.

"How-how did you find me?" I asked and yawned, trying to keep my tired eyes open for a little longer.

Marak smiled weakly for some reason and looked questioning at Daimon and Danthos. The both nodded and left the room quietly so we could talk with each other alone. He then crawled into bed with me and let me rest my head on his shoulder.

"I heard your call for help," he whispered into my ear. I looked up at him, confused of what he was saying. "The night you disappeared… a few hours later I heard you call for help. You sent me a clear picture in my head of where you were and I… well, I quickly contacted Daimon, who is a good friend of Danthos."

"Oh…" I sighed and smiled weakly, feeling the same wonderful sensation when Marak leaned down to kiss me. I could feel that I was fine again. I might be tired, exhausted, and sore, but the poison was gone and that was all that mattered to me right now. "I'm sorry I disobeyed you again. I just… I just wanted to help and be able to defend myself."

Marak tugged me closer to him, kissing me on my forehead. He kept me warm and comfortable and even though I'd only been away for one crazy and hectic day, then it felt like forever since I'd felt like this.

Safe and loved.

Though, I knew that the next couple of days I would have to work hard to control my powers and Marak would have to learn how to protect his kingdom from unwanted creatures like Colthan. We were going to marry in only one month and who knew how many other creatures that wanted to marry, kill or impregnate me (ewww…)?

"I'm so proud of you, Meika. I know what you did was… well, it was kindda stupid, but it was also very courageous and I'm really happy that you conquered your fear. But–"

"No, _buts_ today, Marak!" I interrupted and before he could say anything else I surprised him with a passionate kiss. "Today we're going to kiss and hug and do _almost_ all those things normal couples do, so I don't want to hear that word anymore today!"

He chuckled in between the kisses, rolled me over to my back, and placed himself gently on top of me. I couldn't help but blush when he did something like this, but I remembered that Marak had that erotic book and that just made me laugh.

We kissed passionately for a while though and enjoyed each other's company like two long lost lovers, who had finally found each other after a very long time of being separated against their will. This late afternoon proved that my feelings to Marak weren't just a bad case of the Stockholm syndrome.

And for the first time since I met Marak and moved into his bedroom, I finally let Marak sleep in his bed and used his muscular and firm chest as my pillow. Of course this didn't mean that Marak was going to behave, because well, let's face it – this is Marak we're talking about! – and was pushed down from his bed after only three hours of sleep and cuddling with me.

However, Marak reminded me of that he was "a very patient Goblin" and reluctantly slept on the mattress next to his bed. I just shook my head of him and went back to sleep, enjoying the free space I had gotten back.


	15. Wave Of Calmness

**_A/N: Hiiii! Here's chapter 15! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 15:

**Marak's POV:**

"Meika, would you please focus?" I asked impatiently.

"I _am_ focusing!" Meika hissed_, _crossing her arms stubbornly.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. Teaching Meika how to use her powers… maybe I should just have let Daimon do it instead. I sure wasn't going anywhere with her and whenever I told her to focus then she would just become stubborn and say that I was too bossy.

"I have an idea," I said and went closer to Meika. I could hear her heartbeat rise and her cheeks became burning red. I was happy to see that she still had feelings for me and wanted to kiss those soft lips of hers. "What if we make this into a game? If you manage to make a perfect light orb, then I'll give you something special. But if you fail, then you have to…" I smirked. "Then you have to do something for me and you have to do it no matter what it is. You're up for it?"

Meika hesitated, but she agreed and we tried to start with a clean table. This time she tried to focus and I knew why. She was afraid that if she lost the game then I would tell her to sleep with me or something like that. It was tempting to do it, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I forced her to do something she didn't want to do or wasn't ready for.

"Okay, close your eyes and try envisioning an orb of light in your palms," I said calmly and she did as I told her to. I saw the orb appear in her palms and the more she focused the more the orb grew. I saw a smile form on her lips and wondered what she was thinking of right now. The only thing she had told me about how she should control her powers, was that she had to think of something good and positive. "Good. Now I want you to give it more power, but do it calmly. We don't want to rush and make it explode."

Last time we tried to do this, she gave it too much power and it exploded, blinding the both of us for almost an hour. I knew I shouldn't be interrupting Meika, while she was trying to get the hang of her powers, but I couldn't control my feelings for her. I quietly walked closer to her and gave her a kiss.

Luckily, this didn't make her lose control of her powers, but the orb just grew bigger and her cheeks became all flushed.

"I love you, Meika," I whispered in her ear and saw how the orb became as big as a soccer ball. So _love_ triggered her powers… of course. It was pretty obvious since Moonchildren were full of love and compassion. They believed in solidarity and harmony with every creature that existed. Of course the part with them being in harmony with others had changed a bit, because they were forced to hide, but with the help of the Goblins and the Light Creatures then I was sure that they would soon be able to trust others again. "Try opening your eyes."

Meika calmly opened her eyes and looked with wondering eyes on the orb of light in her hands. She did it. She had succeeded in making a proper orb of light. I smiled and took the orb, placing it gently on her nightstand and using my powers to make it change its colour every five minute.

"I did it! I won the bet!" Meika exclaimed, smiling brightly.

I nodded and gave her another kiss – this time she put her arms around me and kissed me back, clearly enjoying her sweet victory. I swung my arm around her waist and pulled her close to my body, feeling the warmth of her skin on my own cold skin.

"Marak, you know, this means that you have to give me something special…" she teased.

"Yes, I do," I said and took her up into my arms. "Close your eyes and begin to count down from… sixty. Okay?"

Meika nodded and giggled before she closed her eyes and let me take her to a special place of mine. I took her outside to Hallow Hill's tallest hill where Marak Sixfinger once tried to capture his wife. I still remembered how my grandfather Marak Catspaw used to tell me about how they met. Like Meika and the other wives, Kate was also against marrying her king, until she fell in love with him too.

"Open your eyes, dear," I said and Meika immediately opened her eyes, looking confusedly around. She noticed that we were outside and that she was able to see the stars and the moon tonight. "I know you've had a hard time the last two months in my kingdom, but… I trust and love you and want you to be truly happy."

Meika spun around, taking her eyes off the starry sky, and looked at me with tears in her eyes. She was crying out of happiness and she hugged me tighter than she'd ever done before. I could hear her whisper "thank you" over and over again, but I could tell that she was waiting patiently to be able to dance and use her magic. The moon might be waxing, but it was still shining brightly on the sky.

"Go," Meika looked unsure though. "It's alright. I'll be keeping an eye on you from here."

She nodded understandingly, kissed me one last time, and then ran to the centre of the hill's top to dance. I sat down on a big rock nearby and just enjoyed the sight of her. Like two months ago, she was using her powers unknowingly and made the trees and flowers bloom beautifully. Everything about her was simply magnificent in my eyes and I wondered about what was on her mind right now.

Was she looking forward to our wedding?

Was she thinking about me?

Or did she miss both her biological parents and adoptive parents?

I sighed and shook the thoughts out of my head. I needed to stop focusing on things like that and begin to focus on keeping an eye on Meika and making sure that no one was going to take her again.

**Meika's POV:**

"Marak, may I ask you of something... rather _personal_?" I asked curiously, pushing more soap bubbles closer to me so Marak couldn't see my naked body under the warm water.

After letting me dance _outside_ his kingdom, we had walked around for a while in the woods and played around. Sadly, I fell over a branch while we were playing and I happened to fall down in a pool of mud, so… now I was enjoying the big bath tub Marak had in his bathroom. The good thing about him being a Goblin, was that he needed a bigger bath tub and that meant that I had more space to relax in it _and_ to hide my body, while Marak was shaving.

Apparently, even Goblins had to shave …

"Sure! Fire away, my love." Marak said and washed the razor.

I blushed and heard him giggle, because he knew I would get embarrassed whenever he called me his love or said those three wonderful words.

"How did your mother die?" I asked and immediately saw how the smile on his lips faded. "I'm sorry. Just-just forget I asked. I shouldn't have–"

"No, it's okay," Marak turned his head to me and smiled weakly. "She… well, it's kindda hard to explain, but let's just say that she became very sick and-and then she died."

"Oh…" I sighed and wanted to hug him, but I remembered that I was still naked and therefore I stayed put. "I'm sorry to hear that. But Petra did a great job raising you, while your father was busy."

Marak nodded and approached the bath tub, scrunching down to my height and smiling weakly. I knew what that smile meant. It meant that he was thankful of me for trying to cheer him up.

"Meika, may I _tell_ you something very personal?" Marak asked teasingly.

I knew what he was going to say and therefore I covered his eyes with my hand, making him laugh. I knew that the soap bubbles weren't covering my body anymore and it embarrassed me greatly. But I gave Marak a kiss and told him to go outside so I could wash the rest of the dirt off. He had to go to court anyway and finish up a couple of things.

However, when I was done washing myself and was dressed, I went to join him, because I didn't want to go to bed all alone. But I was surprised to see that my brother was there too, talking with Marak about our wedding and about how I was doing. Isadora was here as well so I went to join her, while our loved ones were busy.

"Oh, there you are!" Isadora said, smiling brightly. She hugged me and we sat down at a table nearby where we could watch them discuss which traditions they were going to incorporate. "How are you doing? I heard about how you were kidnapped by shadows last week. That must have been terrifying."

I nodded. But it wasn't only terrifying. Even though I wasn't there for long then I had finally met my biological mother's and adoptive parents' murderer. Danthos did come to visit me and told me that he had locked his brother up once again, but… I still thought about how close I'd been to marry that monster. Just the thought of him made me feel so… disgusted.

"I'm okay now… Marak has been very kind to me and took me outside for a couple of hours today," I said, smiling of the thought of our time outside. It was one of the best days I'd had here. "He's also teaching me how to control my powers, but… it's kindda hard, you know."

Isadora nodded. Of course she knew. She was a Moonchild too and knew that it took time for people like us to control our powers. "Your brother first learned how to control his when he was 15, I think. It was at about the time when we met and fell in love."

I smiled. Maybe it helped if you were in love, because then you had something you could find comfort at. Marak made me feel comfortable (when he wasn't teasing me) and whenever he said that he loved me I would feel this wave of calmness wash over me.

"Have you and my brother talked about having children?" I asked curiously.

Now Isadora blushed, but she nodded and looked at Daimon. "I really want to, but Daimon… he's scared that something will happen to us and that he won't be able to raise our kids like when your mother died. But it's okay, because we're still young and have lots of time to worry about kids."

"But how do you know if you're ready? I mean, I love Marak and want to have kids too some day, but I don't know if I'll ever be ready to…" I lowered my voice. "You know, _have sex with him._"

Isadora giggled and just pushed a stray of my hair behind my ear. She could obviously see that I had no experience at all with love or sex. Marak was my first love and he would become my first lover too.

"It's okay to be scared, Meika. I was too, but… I've learned that sometimes you need to face your fears in order to be truly happy. I'm not saying that you should force yourself to sleep with him, but take it slow and just enjoy how you feel about each other right now. I know it's confusing, but–"

"What's confusing?" Daimon suddenly asked, making the both of us jump a bit and become flushed.

"Oh, we… um… we were just talking about… um…" I stuttered nervously.

"About how the Goblins' weddings are like," Isadora lied and I nodded, trying to hide how embarrassed I felt about this. I didn't Damian to hear me talk about sex and I certainly didn't want to Daimon to hear me talk about it either. "Well, we should be going. Right, honey?"

Daimon nodded hesitantly, looking suspiciously at the both of us, but he gave me a hug and left the kingdom. Only a few minutes after they had left, Marak approached me with a wide grin on his face.

"You know, Isadora is right," he said. "But at least now I know that you _do_ want to sleep with me!"


	16. Chained Together

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 16! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 16:

**Meika's POV:**

The time almost flew by the next couple of weeks. Marak and I spent a lot of time together, we trained, goofed around, and every now and then my brother and Isadora would visit us, making sure that I was okay and it was also just an excuse for my brother to keep an eye on my fiancé. He wasn't too fond of the fact that I was going to marry Marak when we would much rather see me with a fellow Moonchild.

Though, he was happy about having an alliance with the Goblins and tried to settle with seeing me happy rather than miserable and lonely. Isadora had told me about how much he worried about me every day, but she'd tried to take his worries away and make him focus on things like when they were going to produce an heir. It sounded kindda weird to talk about when my brother was going to have a child, but… things were pretty much already weird!

But all of this was nothing compared to when the day of our wedding finally came. Marak had told me what was going to happen at the wedding and I was unsure if I could remember to _not_ talk to him or anyone else. Marak tried to give me a potion that would make me mute, but because of my powers it didn't work. So I had to keep my mouth shut all day.

The wedding dress… well, I wouldn't exactly call it a _normal_ wedding dress, because it was more a top and a skirt that made me feel like I was an Amazonas or something like that. I was also given four golden rings, which were supposed to be on my wrists and ankles.

Though, this… _look_ – if you could call it that – did suit me and Petra, who wasn't allowed to speak with me either, helped me to get prepared to the big day. She also painted a lot of weird symbols on my body where some of them felt like they were burning my skin, while the others didn't hurt. Marak had told me that the symbols were there as a test of my character. I didn't think that much about it and just tried to be patient.

When I was finally ready for the wedding, two Goblin guards chained me to them and lead me to the huge arena-like room where hundreds of Goblins were sitting, watching every move I made as I walked on a path of more strange symbols that were drawn in the sand.

I wasn't quite sure of what was going to happen now, but just followed the guards to Marak, who was waiting patiently for me. We smiled to each other as soon as our eyes met and I wanted to kiss him so badly, but I didn't know if I was allowed to do it so I didn't do anything but smiled.

Marak chained me to a table and began on a series of odd things he had to do. He had to cut my hands, because he needed my blood for some reason. But he put my hands into a bowl of healing water and cut his own hands too, leaving a silver-colour scar on our hands.

No one said a word during the whole ceremony and I noticed that my brother wasn't there to watch me marry. I didn't know what he and Marak had arranged, but I did know that – after Marak had covered a strange golden sword with the ash of our nails and hair – d it transformed into a snake and that snake kindda slipped under my skin and became a form of tattoo.

"Now we're done with this ceremony," Marak informed and looked at the cheering crowd of Goblins. They were cheering on us and because the wedding was a success. "Let's go, my dear Moonchild."

Marak gave me a quick kiss on my cheek and then followed me out of the kingdom and into a portal that lead us to my brother's kingdom.

This time Marak and I were allowed to speak with each other and we were chained together, because – according to my brother – we were supposed to be chained with our partner as a test to see if we could be equal as man and wife. We also had to drink a mixture of our blood and some other ingredients that would connect us to each other mentally. I was able to read Marak's mind and he was able to read mine too.

However, when we had finished this wedding too and had to go back to Marak's kingdom, I couldn't help but feel scared of what was going to happen now. We were going to "produce an heir" as Marak had told me and that meant that I had to face my fears. It wasn't like I didn't want to, because I really did want to, but… I was just anxious and probably stupid for making such a big deal out of this.

"You're nervous," Marak said more than asked as we were walking together to the big party that was thrown for us. "I thought you did want to make love to me?"

I stopped shortly, forcing Marak to stop too. "I'm sorry, but… I'm just scared. I mean… you're my _first_," I said and saw a glimpse of a smirk on Marak's lips. But he put his arms around me and held me close to his body. I hugged him tightly and enjoyed the warmth of his skin. "I know you'll wait for me, but you can't wait forever."

"You're right, but right now I don't want you to focus on tonight. It's still evening and _our_ people await us."

I nodded and felt his lips press against mine. I'd missed those wonderful lips today and almost wasn't able to let go of him. Marak couldn't let go of me either. He pinned me to the wall and kissed me passionately, his hand sliding slowly up of my thigh and his long nails gently touched my skin. I could feel that Marak wanted me as much as I wanted him, but my fears overwhelmed me and forced me to stop him before we got any further.

"I'm-I'm sorry…" I said, gasping a bit.

My face was all flushed, my heart was pounding fast, and I felt like I was going to faint.

"It's okay. I'm starving anyway," Marak said and chuckled. "Let's go, my _queen_."

**Marak's POV:**

The party went on for hours, the wine and lamb were vanished from the tables, and poor little Meika fell asleep after drinking maybe too much red wine. But I carried my young wife to our bedroom and dressed her in a beautiful nightgown that had been a gift from Zato's wife. She looked very beautiful in it, but… then again – she always looked beautiful in my eyes!

"Mm… Marak?" Meika mumbled drowsily.

I looked down at my beautiful wife and could see that she was beginning to wake up. Though, it was only for a moment, until the tiredness overwhelmed her and forced her back to sleep. I gave her a kiss on her forehead and gently lay her on my bed, then undressed myself and crawled under the blanket.

Automatically, Meika rolled over on her other side and tugged herself closer to my body. I could tell that she was having a good dream, because she was smiling in her sleep and mumbling something about me that I unfortunately couldn't make out. But it sounded like she was in really in love with me and like she really wanted to overcome her fears.

We slept peacefully that night and I couldn't feel happier than I was tonight. I was married with the girl I loved and could do whatever I wanted to… well, almost everything. I had to wait until she was ready before we could produce an heir, but Daimon _did_ tell me that most "Moongirls" normally weren't ready to have sex, until they were at least 18, so I probably had to wait six more months… ( )

I woke up early in the morning and wanted to surprise Meika with breakfast, but because of the chain that connected us, I only woke her up and accidentally dragged her out of our bed and down on the floor. Meika looked confusedly around and wrinkled her nose at me when she noticed that I was the one who dragged her out of bed.

"Sorry, dear. I forgot about the chain," I said, feeling a bit embarrassed of what I did. But I helped her up and gave her a kiss that made her forget about it. "Are you feeling hangover?"

Meika nodded and rubbed her tired eyes. She looked at me, scratched her head a bit, and yawned when she saw what time it was. It was about 8:30 AM.

"What are we supposed to do today?" she asked sleepily. "Please don't say we have to work, because if you do..."

I shook my head and gave her another kiss. This time she smiled and pulled me back down onto the bed. For a moment I could feel and _hear_ (her thoughts) that she wanted to overcome her fears, but this time the nausea stopped her. She pulled back and lay down on the bed again before she vomited.

"You shouldn't have drunk so much last night…" I said teasingly.

Meika flipped me off and buried herself under the blanket, but I just chuckled and joined her under the blanket, kissing her on her neck and massaging her head a bit.

"Don't Goblins get drunk or at least hung-over?" Meika asked curiously.

I chuckled again. "That depends," I teased. "But yes, sometimes we do. But we're probably more capable of drinking alcohol than silly Moonchildren are."

Meika giggled a bit. "Silly? Are you mocking your own wife now?"

"Yes, I am!" I tickled her and wanted to kiss her again, but I could hear that Petra was on her way to our room with breakfast.

The lion in me could smell the sweet scent of tea, toast with bacon, egg, _and_ lamb, and hear her tiny footsteps get closer and closer.

Normally, I didn't eat bacon and egg, but we knew that Meika needed some variety in her meals. Though, we still didn't let her eat the meat of a female animal since that was against the law.

"Breakfast is ready," Meika said. I guessed that she had read my thoughts and nodded, removing the blanket and helping her to get up carefully so she wouldn't vomit. "Thanks."

Petra gently knocked on the door and we let her inside. She smiled brightly as soon as she saw the both of us and served us our dinner, probably wondering whether we had tried to produce an heir or not last night. She didn't ask, but I knew that she was thinking the question and therefore I discretely shook my head, while Meika was enjoying the scent of her newly made strawberry tea.

"Oh, and your brother scent us a letter saying that he was very busy today, so he'll first be able to remove the chain tomorrow," Petra informed us. I heard a sigh coming from Meika, because she remembered how I'd forgotten about the chain this morning and dragged her out of bed. "I'll let the two of you eat now. If you need anything, then just say so."

We thanked for the breakfast and turned our gaze to each other, clearly thinking the same thing. It was going to be hard to get used to the chain and we were probably going to yell at each other, but I just took it as another test from Daimon that I had to pass to show that I was worthy of being Meika's husband. Maybe Daimon really did want to test me?

"I think my brother is testing you too," Meika said, smiling teasingly because she had just read my thoughts again. She stuck her tongue out so I rolled my eyes and shook my head of her. That only made her cross her arms stubbornly and sending me a stern look. "If _you're_ allowed to mock your wife, then _I'm_ defiantly allowed to mock my husband too!"

"Of course, dear. But don't make it into a competition, because you know you'll lose then!" I teased.

"Oh-ohh! It's so on!" Meika exclaimed, slamming her clenched fist down on the table.

We both burst into laughter, but we tried to put the teasing and taunting aside and ate our breakfast. Well, I _ate_ my breakfast, but Meika only got to eat a piece of bacon before she had to vomit.


	17. Glowing

**_A/N: Hi! Here's chapter 17! :D_**

**_I hope you like it and please review!_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 17:

**Meika's POV:**

"I seriously don't get why _you_ have to dress me…" I said, glaring irritably at my husband, who was walking around me as if he was preying on an animal, dragging me with him with the chain.

He scanned me from head to toe and muttered something in his language that sounded like _I don't like it_. I was able to say a couple of sentences in his language, but there were some things I didn't want to understand.

Like this.

Petra, who brought Marak the dresses, sighed and went to get a new dress, while I rolled my eyes and tried to stay calm. Of course I loved Marak and was happy to be his wife, but I still didn't like some of the rules he wanted me to follow.

However, this time Marak actually smiled, when I got the new white-coloured dress on, and seemed satisfied. But there was a little problem now.

"I don't like that one!" I complained.

"I know," Marak said, clearly amused of my anger. "But I like it, so…"

"But I always wear this dress!"

Marak chuckled. "Yes, because I like it."

I snorted and tried to leave the bedroom, but the chain stopped me from walking more than 4-5 feet away from him. I wanted to throw a temper tantrum or something like that, but Marak put his arms around me and began kissing me on the side of my neck, making me forget how annoyed I was of him. He turned me around and gently caressed my face.

"Looks like I've tamed the wild–"

"If you say _beast,_ I'll smack you in the head," I interrupted, snickering. Marak chuckled and just kissed me. "Good answer."

But again, I could feel that Marak wanted more than just sweet kisses, and this time there wasn't anything to stop us. We moved our way to the bed; Marak locked the door with his powers, and buried his fingers in my hair, kissing me more and more passionately.

Right now I didn't feel that scared, because Marak wasn't rushing on me and just took it slow even though it was just simple foreplay. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach and felt my cheeks burning, but I stayed calm and just tried not to ruin this moment. Even if we didn't get further than kissing, then I didn't want this wonderful feeling to stop.

I _wanted_ Marak; I… wanted his lips, his stunning golden lion-like eyes… I-I wanted everything that I loved about him and didn't want to push him away anymore. We were married, we loved each other… what more did I need to let him truly inside my heart?

"Meika… you're not… stopping me?" Marak asked worriedly as I gently pushed him down on the bed.

I shook my head and saw a smirk form on his lips. He rolled me over on my back and gave me a deep kiss. I didn't plan to make love to Marak the afternoon after our wedding, but it finally happened. Maybe it helped that I looked Marak in his eyes, because whenever I did so I would feel much calmer and safer. Of course it did hurt a bit, because it was my first time, but the pain didn't bother me. I was too overwhelmed by the feelings I had for Marak and felt happier than I'd ever felt in my life.

We stayed in bed the rest of the day and just embraced each other. I was still sore and actually a bit exhausted too, because I accidentally trashed Marak's bedroom with my powers, while Marak just seemed very satisfied. Now he got his will, but hopefully this didn't mean that I would get pregnant. If it did… well, then Marak probably needed to run for his life before I smacked him hard.

"Don't worry, dear," Marak said teasingly. "You might be a Moonchild, but I'm pretty sure my genes are stronger than yours and therefore it'll take some time before you become pregnant."

I rolled my eyes. "Stay out of my head, Marak. I let you become my first, so don't push it." I said.

Of course Marak just chuckled and tugged me closer to him, stroking my cheek gently. I tried to push him down from the bed, but this time I forgot about the chain and fell down too on top of him.

"Well, hello again, dear," Marak teased. "I see you can't get enough of me."

I snorted, got up, and quickly rapped a blanket around my half-naked body. Marak got up too and began dressing himself, because he could hear that Petra was on her way again. I let him help me get the dress back on even though I wanted to wear something else.

"How are you feeling right now?" Marak asked worriedly.

I knew what he was referring to and blushed, while he just continued fastening the back. I mumbled a "fine" and thought about why Marak wanted to dress me.

"You know, my great-grandfather – Marak Sixfinger – used to choose the same blue dress for his wife Kate. They used to argue over which dress she was going to wear."

"So you just think it is fun to do the same thing to me?"

I crossed my arms and turned to him, just as Petra entered our bedroom along with Zato and another guard named Teekan. They were here, because we had to go to a banquet around 8:00 o'clock and it was almost 8:00 now. I couldn't believe that we had actually been cuddling for so many hours and missed dinner. But now that we _were_ going to the banquet, I didn't hesitate to leave the bedroom.

**Marak's POV:**

Everyone was staring at Meika at the banquet, but it wasn't because she was my wife or because the snake was twirling around her neck. It was because she was eating like a wild beast. I didn't mind her returning to her primitive ways once in a while and I did keep her inside our bedroom for many hours, so she couldn't have her dinner.

Though, I was happy to see that Meika enjoyed living in my home and that she'd at least tried to adapt to being imprisoned in an underground kingdom. It did take a long time for me to convince her that I wasn't the bad guy here, but it was worth the waiting – especially, when I finally tamed her wild spirit today and made sweet and passionate love to her.

"My wife is very hungry today!" I proclaimed and laughed.

Meika finally looked up and blushed greatly. "That's your fault, dear husband!" she said teasingly.

The other guests laughed and I noticed something odd about Meika. She was… _glowing_? Yes, I could defiantly see a bright silver-coloured aura around her and so could everyone else. The guests began whispering and some where snickering, so I tried to get Meika's attention discretely. She looked confusedly at me, but noticed that everyone was staring and blushed even more.

"Why are they staring like that?" she whispered.

"Because you're glowing." I whispered, smirking teasingly.

Meika smiled shyly. "Aww, thanks!"

"No, I'm serious. You're _glowing_."

I took a spoon and showed her in the reflection what everyone else was seeing. Immediately, she let out a loud shriek. She caught everyone's attention, but before I could say anything, she got up and tried to run back to our bedroom. I quickly got up too and followed her so she wouldn't fall again _and_ I wanted to find out what was going on.

Whatever was going on then Meika seemed to know what it was – or rather – she had a sense of what was wrong and tried to find the booker her brother gave her to confirm her suspicion. I watched her as she flipped through the pages, and when she finally found the right page and suddenly turned pale, I knew that her suspicion had been confirmed.

"What's wrong? Is is something serious?" I asked worriedly.

Meika sat down on our bed and almost looked defeated. Something was defiantly wrong and it worried me to see her like this.

"Meika, please. Tell me what is wrong." I urged.

But Meika shook her head and closed the book. She even managed to hide her thoughts from me too, so I had no clue of what was wrong.

However, after Daimon came to visit us unexpectedly, and by the look of his facial expression, when he saw his little sister glowing like that, I could tell that he too knew what was wrong. But even though clenched his fists and was ready to hit someone, then he tried to remain calm and just removed the chain between us.

"Meika, may I please talk with you?" he asked firmly. "In private?"

Of course I didn't want to leave my wife, but I knew that they needed to talk about something very serious and therefore I reluctantly left. I went back to the banquet alone to many people's surprise and heard that they were whispering about my and Meika's suddenly storm out. And because of everything that had happened tonight, the banquet ended early.

I walked back to my bedroom, but luckily I passed Daimon on the way before he left. He looked troubled and very concerned, so I quickly stopped him and pushed him in to one of the guestrooms.

"Marak, I know you want to know why Meika is glowing, but… I _really_ don't want to be the one to tell this," Daimon immediately said. "You should ask Meika instead."

"I _have_ asked her and she didn't want to say anything," I said. "She doesn't even want me to hear her thoughts, so if something _is_ wrong with her, then tell me. Now!"

Daimon sighed heavily and signed for me to sit down at the nearest table. "Whenever a Moongirl is glowing like that, it means that…" He sighed again. "For 24 hours she'll be glowing like this. It means that she's conceived a child."

I was completely star-struck. I knew that Moongirls were very fertile, but I didn't expect this to happen so soon.

"She knows what wrong with her?" I asked worriedly.

Daimon nodded. "She's freaking out about it, but… just don't bring it up for a while. I don't want her to stress about this for the next 24 hours, because if she does… well, then she'll lose the child."

My eyes widened. "Thanks for telling me this. Really. I know you don't want to see your sister pregnant at the age of 17, but I promise you that I'll take good care of her."

"I know you will," Daimon stood up and padded my shoulder. "But you do know what'll happen if you don't, right?"

I nodded and couldn't help but laugh dryly. Of course I knew what would happen. I would make a powerful enemy _and_ fail in being a good husband and king. But after Daimon left, I went back to my bedroom and found my worried queen sitting on our bed. I sat down next to her and just kissed her.


	18. Strawberries

**_A/N: Hii! here's chapter 18!_**

**_I'm sorry it's a bit short, but I'm beginning to struggle to write this story. I don't want to end it already so... if you have any ideas or want something specific to happen then feel free to write a message to me :)_**

**_But I hope you like it and please review!_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 18:

**Meika's POV:**

I had a bad feeling that my brother had told Marak the truth about what was wrong with me, because the rest of the night and the whole next day he spent with me, trying to make me happy, but still kept me locked up in his bedroom. He didn't want anyone to disturb us and if they had a problem, then they would have to go to Zato or Petra. Of course I was happy to spend some time with Marak, but I was still scared and worried and wanted to scream out of frustration.

However, Daimon told me to relax and that if I stressed too much, then I would only miscarriage and that would be a problem since the Goblin king was only able to have _one_ child. I didn't want to lose the child when I knew that Marak was looking forward to become a father. He _was_ part lion and a king so of course he wanted an heir to his kingdom.

"You worry too much," Marak said. I rolled over in his bed to my other side to face my husband. He smiled weakly and gently stroked my cheek. "You shouldn't be worrying."

"You shouldn't worry either then," I said and sat up. I looked at the old grandfather clock and sighed heavily. There was still three hours until I would stop glowing like a lamp. I felt so embarrassed of when everyone was staring at me at the banquet. Daimon told me that it was a natural thing for a Moongirl to glow during the start of her pregnancy, but… I didn't feel good about it at all. "I know you know, Marak. I'm not stupid, you know."

Marak sat up too and made me face him again. He still looked worried, but now he didn't have to hold the temptation back anymore. He gently rested his hand on my stomach and made me feel so calm and warm inside. We were going to have a child so why was I so scared? It wasn't like I was left to raise the child alone.

"The queen always cries when she sees her newborn son," Marak said and removed his hand to push a stray of my hair behind my ear. "The son will not look like us, because of what we are. He will look like us by what we like and hate by each other."

"So… if I like your eyes, then he'll inherit them?" I asked curiously.

Marak nodded and gently stroked my cheek again. I kissed him and giggled when I saw how his tail was moving from side to side, because he was happy. I pushed him back down on our bed and continued kissing him. I wanted his kisses to make me forget that I'd been worrying about the future of our child all day and then I just missed kissing him like this.

"Marak, wait a minute," I said before he could undress me. He wrinkled his nose, but waited patiently in our bed, while I quickly turned on the music on my Ipod. I didn't want anyone to hear us and I missed listening to the music I liked. "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a very strange wife."

I'd heard Marak's thoughts, but I didn't mind him thinking something like that. I just wanted to have a little fun and music always made me feel good. But I joined Marak under the blanket and he helped me forget the fact that I was still glowing. It didn't hurt that much this time, but it was a good thing that I chose to turn the music on, because… well, let us just say that the lion in Marak wanted to make himself noticed (dear God, how embarrassing…).

Though, the three last hours went by and the glowing stopped, only to be replaced by a strange hunger for strawberries. I ordered more than said to Marak that he should fetch me some strawberries and of course he fetched them for me like the good husband he was.

"We should announce your pregnancy," Marak said, while I was eating up the bowl of sweet strawberries he had fetched me. "They need to know that an heir will be born."

"No! I mean–"I wiped my mouth and tried to say something again. "What I mean is that I think we should wait. I don't want people to worry about me yet. You're already worry a lot as it is!"

"Fine," Marak tried to take one of my strawberries, but I growled and bared my teeth at him. I'd only been pregnant for a day and the child had already made me territorial like his father. Marak just laughed though and mumbled something in his language about our son being like him. "Just because you're expecting my son, it doesn't mean that you're not capable of sharing."

I snorted. "I don't think your son agree about that, but go ahead. Try to take one."

Marak gazed at me for a couple of minutes and then chose to get something else to eat. A clever move, considering that I didn't know what else my son could make me do. He was a power little creature and was not only a Goblin, but also part Moonchild and part elf. I wondered if he was going to become most like me or most like Marak.

"MARAK!" I yelled loudly.

I only had to wait for five seconds before Marak stormed in to our bedroom, ready to kill whoever was here now… except, no one was here to hurt me. It was just me, who didn't feel like getting up and finding him. I knew it was a lazy thing to do, but these pregnancy hormones made me feel rather weird – especially, because of my powers that were connected to my shifting emotions.

"What now?" Marak asked, sounding a bit annoyed.

"I'm thirsty," I answered teasingly, making Marak roll his eye of me. "Will you please make me a cup of strawberry tea?"

Marak looked blankly at me. "But didn't you just _eat_ strawberries?"

I blushed. "Yeah, but now I feel like drinking strawberry tea. Shouldn't you be helping your wife?"

"Yes, but…" Marak shook his head and raised his hands in defeat. "Fine, I'll make you a cup of tea!"

**Marak's POV:**

In all of my years as the next Goblin king I never once imagined that I would become my wife's servant. But I loved her and knew that she was just trying to enjoy her pregnancy instead of fearing what could go wrong or what would happen in about nine months. Therefore, I continued serving her whatever she wanted, but only if she promised to go to court with me and remembered to eat a lot of lamb. My son was part Goblin and had to eat like a Goblin too.

The months went by without any problems though and as they went by Meika's stomach grew bigger and bigger. She often visited Zato's wife and got a lot of good advices from her. Domain did visit us too to make sure that his sister was doing fine and would always remind me of that if I did anything to hurt Meika, then he would hurt me much worse than I'd hurt her.

However, when Meika was third month pregnant, her need to get outside and dance under the full moon became enhanced by her pregnancy and she began begging me to let her out. I couldn't let her out when she was pregnant. She would just endanger herself and the child. So instead I brought the moon to her in the shape of a moon-like orb, which seemed to calm her down.

"I hate when you always surprise me with things like this…" Meika muttered, wiping the tears away. She stepped closer to the orb and smiled weakly though. "What happens if I touch it?"

"Well…" I actually didn't know, but I guessed that it would grow bigger because of her powers. "Don't worry about that. How is our son?"

Meika smiled brighter and rubbed her tummy instinctively. She took my hand and placed it on the side of her tummy, so I could feel the kicking of our son. He was wild just like his mother and and he probably also become very stubborn.

"Marak, do you think it's possible for me to have a girl rather than a boy?" Meika asked curiously. "I mean, I am a Moonchild and–"

"No," I answered firmly, shaking my head. That would never happen. Even _if_ it did, then… well, then we would have a serious problem. The heir had always been a _boy_. "I'll bet my whole kingdom on that you will give birth to a boy."

"Deal!" Meika and I shook hands and then laughed.

But I pulled Meika close to me and danced slowly with her. I didn't want her to stress herself or to get hurt, but I wasn't going to band her from dancing.

"Wow… you've got great moves, Goblin," Meika teased. "You sure you're not part Moonchild?"

I nodded. "If you think that's special, then watch this…" I said.

I spun her around and leaned her backwards, watching her face as a smile formed on her sweet lips.


	19. The Letter

**_A/N: Hiii! So... now reviews? *sad face*_**

**_Oh well, I'm going to give you the next chapter anyway ;)_**

**_So here's chapter 19, I hope you like it, and please review! :D_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 19:

**Meika's POV:**

"Please, please, please, please, PLEASE–"

"No!" Marak interrupted firmly.

I sighed in frustration and turned my back to him, gently rubbing my tummy because our son was moving around again. He might only be six months old, but he was acting like a two-year-old and wanted me to pee almost all the time.

It was frustrating and to make it even worse, then Marak wouldn't let me do anything fun anymore, because he was afraid that something would happen to our son. The last six months had been wonderful, but sometimes I just wanted to hit Marak – especially when he didn't want me to visit my own brother for only an hour or two.

"Marak, she'll be fine," Petra reassured him. "Zato and I will go with her and unless you want an emotional unstable Moonchild to attack you, then I think you should let her go."

Marak opened his mouth to protest and list the reasons to why I shouldn't go _again_, but I glared angrily at him and growled under my breath. He shut his mouth and calmly approached me with a look on his face that told me that he didn't want to let me go. I wanted to cry and it wasn't only because I was emotionally unstable, but also because I needed more freedom.

"You promise you won't do anything stupid?" he asked softly.

Stupid? Like leaving Petra and Zato? I nodded and felt Marak's strong arms around me. He really didn't want me to go and if it wasn't because he knew that my brother would become angry at him for keeping me inside, then he would probably hold me locked up inside the kingdom.

"I love you." I said and gave him a thankful kiss.

"I love you too," he replied and sighed weakly. "Now go before I change my mind."

Calmly, I left with Petra and Zato, and went back to Wiltshire where the famous Stonehenge was located. Of course we had to use magic because it was far away from Hallow Hill. But we got there safely and were greeted by Isadora, who still hadn't convinced Daimon to have a child with her. Isadora led me to the courtroom where – like Marak was right now – he was holding court and talking with his advisers about a new building project.

"Brother!" I called to get his attention.

Daimon looked up from the blueprints he was looking at and smiled when he saw me next to his wife. He told his advisers to leave and quickly approached me, wondering about something that seemed to worry him a bit. I hoped that it wasn't about my child, because if it was then I would become extremely worried. I didn't want anything to happen to it either!

"Where is Marak?" Daimon asked.

"At home," I said and sighed in relief. He was just worried about him. "He is just… working."

Daimon nodded hesitantly and stepped closer to me while he took a letter out of his jacket. It had his seal on it and was probably locked with magic so unwanted persons like me couldn't read what it said.

"Could you please give this to Marak?" he asked. "It's very important that _he_ reads it."

Of course it is. He was being secretive to me. I hated whenever people was keeping secrets from me even though I kindda did it too to Marak six months ago… Anyway! They shouldn't be keeping secrets to me if it was really important. I might be almost 18, but I was still the queen and his wife.

"May _I_ read it?" I asked curiously.

Daimon shook his head. That wasn't a huge surprise, but I hid the letter in the pocket of my gown and just hoped that Marak would tell me what the letter said.

"We're starving!" I exclaimed, trying to change the subject.

Daimon lifted an eyebrow in confusion. "_We_?" he repeated.

I rolled my eyes and pointed at my tummy. He realized what I was talking about and chuckled.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting that Marak knocked my sister up," he teased. "But follow me. I'm sure you've had enough lamb the last couple of months."

I nodded. If I ever tasted lamb or anything else with meat from a male animal, then I would probably puke and it wasn't only because of my morning sickness. Too much meat everyday could make anyone go crazy – even for humans!

"How are you else doing?" Daimon asked curiously. "I mean, is he a wild one?"

He pointed towards my tummy and I nodded. He was defiantly a wild one and that made Daimon chuckle again.

"It's the Moonchild in him," he said. "I remember that you used to be very wild too. Mom spent the most of her time either in the bathroom vomiting or peeing, and she was also craving for strawberries all the time. Dad was about to go insane…"

I could see that Daimon missed our parents a lot. I missed them too, but not as much as he did. He had the chance to meet them, to feel them, and he had so many good and bad memories about them that I wanted to have too. Of course I still had the memories of my wonderful adoptive parents, but… it wasn't quite the same.

"I've been craving for strawberries too," I said. "And every time Marak tries to take some of my food, our son makes me growl at him."

This seemed to amuse Daimon a lot and it took his mind of the old memories of our parents. I took a bite of the strawberry on my plate, but noticed that Isadora was awfully quiet today. Maybe she envied that I was about to have a child, while Daimon still left her waiting.

"So… aren't you two going to have children soon?" I asked, hoping that I could make Daimon overcome his fears.

But both Daimon and Isadora looked at each other with that awkward look on their face that told me that they hadn't even spoken about it.

"Um… Isadora, may I please talk with Meika in private?" he asked.

Isadora nodded and gave me a hug before she left the dinner room. I looked worriedly at Daimon. Was something wrong between them?

"I guess that Isadora has told you why we don't have any children yet," he said calmly. I nodded. "It's not like I don't want to have kids with her. I really do. It's just… I saw how our dad struggled to take care of me and the kingdom, and if anything happens to Isadora, then…"

"Nothing will happen, Daimon. She's capable of protecting herself and you're all safe here, aren't you? I mean, you're surrounded by other powerful Moonchildren and the Goblins will help you if anything happens to your kingdom." I said.

Daimon sighed heavily. "I guess you're right. It's so… frustrating. I'm able to be a king, a husband, and a brother, but a father…" He shook his head and sighed again.

"I know it's difficult. Trust me, I know. I mean, I still worry about if I'm going to become a good mother to my son and how painful it will be to give birth to a part Goblin, part Elf, and part Moonchild, but I still try."

He smiled weakly and gently stroked my cheek. "You remind me so much about our mom. She would have been proud of you, you know."

I smiled too and tried not to cry. Damn, these crazy hormones! "I think that dad would have been proud of you too. But… right now I want you to go to Isadora and spent some time with her. She really wants to have kids and she has waited for long enough, don't you think?"

Daimon nodded, hugged me tightly, and whispered a "thank you" before he left the dinner room and went to find Isadora. I was happy that _I_ was able to help _them_ this time and not the other way around.

**Marak's POV:**

"I'm home!" a familiar voice announced downstairs.

I didn't hesitate to hurry downstairs and smiled brightly when I saw my dear wife. Zato looked exhausted and was carrying a picnic basket full of vegetables and fruit, while Petra needed to sit down for a couple of minutes. Meika on the other hand, looked like she still had a lot of energy left, which made me worry of what she had been doing at her brother's home.

"Look! I brought something _healthy_ to all three of us!" Meika said and took the heavy basket from Zato. She could barely carry it, so I helped her to take it upstairs and thanked Zato and Petra for taking good care of her today. "I can't say how thankful I am of getting to talk with my brother and sister-in-law again! Thank you, thank you, thank you! "

I chuckled, put the basket down, and embraced her, feeling my son kick inside her tummy against my stomach. He was probably being territorial again.

"I'm glad that you're happy, but there is no waaay in hell that I'm eating that!" I teased, pointing towards the basket.

Meika wrinkled her nose and shook her head of me. "And you say that _I'm_ unhealthy!" she said and took a couple of grapes from the basket.

"Anyway! How was your day? Did you do anything you shouldn't be doing?"

Meika lifted an eyebrow and was about to say something when she remembered something else. She quickly took out a letter from her pocket and handed it to me. The letter was sealed with Daimon's royal seal, which meant that he wanted to tell me something very important that Meika wasn't allowed to hear about. I went in to my study room, opened the letter, and read what it said.

_Dear Marak, _

_I hope you read this letter as soon as possible since what I'm about to tell you is very important for not only you, but also for Meika. __I have talked with Danthos and it seems that his brother has managed to escape. We believe that he will try to kidnap Meika once again so please keep your eyes and ears open the next couple of days and __do not __leave her sight no matter what. __Danthos will arrive at your home tomorrow morning and bring you to his kingdom where Meika will be safe for now. __We don't know what Colthan will do if he finds her, but we do know that he knows that she's pregnant and will probably want to have his revenge. I trust you Marak, so don't screw this up again. _

_Daimon._

Dear God! I quickly spun around and almost crashed into Meika, who luckily had followed me in to my study room. She hadn't read the letter, but she could tell by the way I looked at her that something was very wrong and she knew that she_ had_ to follow my orders this time.


	20. The Royal Doctor

**_A/N: Hi! I'm sorry it's a bit short, but I was at the beach with my family today so I didn't have much time to write the chapter :/_**

**_But thanks for the kind reviews, I hope you like it, and please review! :D_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 20:

**Meika's POV:**

I woke up finding Marak spooning with me in his bed and he was holding his strong arms tightly around me as if he was afraid that I would leave in the middle of the night. I didn't know why he was being so paranoid, but ever since he read the letter my brother gave him, he had been acting really strange. He didn't want me to leave his sight, he even followed me to the bathroom, and he wanted some of his guards to stay outside our bedroom all night.

At first I thought it was just another odd Goblin tradition that had something to do with my pregnancy, but now I was beginning to think that he did those things, because he was afraid that someone or something would come to get me.

However, I didn't mind getting all that attention or of being pampered, because I enjoyed spending time with my husband and felt truly loved. Sometimes I still thought about the time when I hated Marak more than anything and tried so hard to get out of here.

"He's kicking again," Marak said, letting me know that he was awake too. He gently rubbed my tummy right there where our son was kicking and growled teasingly. I giggled and turned around to face him, immediately feeling his wonderful lips pressing against mine. But suddenly Marak moved a bit away and his gaze trailed down to my tummy again. "He kicked me! That little…"

"Don't yell at your son," I teased. "He's just protecting his mom."

Marak rolled his eyes and sat up, just as an expected knock on the door suddenly came. He ordered the guards to let the person in and I was surprised to see that it was actually Danthos. He had a big travel bag with him and was accompanied by an unfamiliar woman in her late twenties, who looked like she might be a nurse of some sort. She was defiantly another Light Creature and hopefully we were also able to trust her.

"Marak, what's going on?" I asked worriedly.

Danthos's eyes widened. "What? You didn't tell her?" he asked firmly.

Marak shook his head and looked at me with an apologizing expression in his face that told me that he didn't mean to keep anything from me. I was mad at him, yes, but I knew that he just didn't want to stress me when I was pregnant with the heir of his kingdom.

"Your brother wrote me a letter saying that Colthan had escaped and we fear that he'll try to harm you, so… you have to stay at Danthos's kingdom where you'll be safe," Marak said. "But it's only until we've caught Colthan again."

I looked blankly at Marak. How could he _not_ let me know that Colthan was on the loose again? Not telling something like that to your own wife and the mother of your child, would be seriously… calm down, Meika. I shouldn't be stressing about what Marak did and didn't do and should just calmly go with Danthos. I needed to be safe right now and could always scold Marak later.

"What about you? Are you coming with me?" I asked worriedly.

Sadly, Marak shook his head. Of course he couldn't go. He had to stay and protect his kingdom and help his guards finding Colthan before _he_ found them.

"But Petra and Kai will take good care of you," Marak said, nodding towards the woman in here. Kai nodded to confirm it and smiled friendly to calm my nerves down. "And I'll of course visit you as often as I can."

I smiled and hugged him tightly before we began packing my things. It was hard to leave Marak and to sleep without him holding his arms around me, but I was determined to stay strong for the sake of not only me, but also for our son. We were going to get through this and when I was finally able to return, the first thing I would do was to kiss Marak and then focus on when our son would be born.

"I love you, Meika. Please don't do anything stupid, okay?" Marak said teasingly.

"Stupid?" I repeated with a lifted eyebrow. Marak chuckled, but I just shook my head and gave him a gentle kiss. "I love you too and _don't_ do anything stupid yourself, kay?"

Marak nodded and gave my tummy a kiss too before I left his kingdom and went into a portal with Petra, Kai, and Danthos. We arrived at this heavenly beautiful kingdom that was the complete opposite of the Shadow Realm and instead of seeing creepy Shadow Creatures everywhere, I saw a lot of white-dressed women and men, who all seemed very friendly.

Petra had never been here either, so we had to follow Kai who took us on a little tour around in the big castle-like home where Danthos lived with his own wife and son. His son was surprisingly older than I expected to and looked about my age. He was very handsome too, but I would never leave Marak for him. Besides, Marak had already officially claimed me as his by knocking me up.

"This will be where you two will be staying," Kai said, showing us a big bedroom with two beautiful handmade beds that were meant for Petra and I. "Meika, before I let you have your breakfast, I would like to take a look at your child. I'm the royal doctor and have been asked by King Marak to make sure that your pregnancy will go as expected."

I looked at the golden-haired, eloquent doctor and instinctively rubbed my tummy. I wasn't too fond of getting examined and especially _down there_. I didn't like it in my old and normal life and I was sure that I wasn't going to like it now either.

"Don't worry, I just need to listen to the child's heartbeat and feel if he's not lying the wrong way," Kai said when she saw my pale facial expression. I sighed in relief and calmly lay down on my bed so she could examine me. She had a stethoscope just like human doctors had and used it to listen to my son's heartbeat. I didn't know whether to be worried or amazed by all of this. "Well… the heartbeat sounds fine and I can feel that he likes to kick a lot. That's not uncommon during a Moonchild's pregnancy. But… I would advise you to get more vitamins."

"Vitamins? Oh… okay, but he's fine other than that, right?" I asked worriedly.

Kai nodded and smiled. She told me that she was going to make me an elixir with the vitamins I needed and I had to drink that elixir at least three times a week.

"You should lie down for a while," Petra advised. "I know you don't want to sit down all day, but you need to remember that you're six months pregnant."

I nodded understandingly and just stayed in bed, while she fetched my breakfast and was given the elixir I needed. But while I waited in the secured bedroom, I was visited by Danthos 18-year-old son Zeth, who seemed curious about my arrival or maybe he was just surprised to see a Moonchild.

"May I come in?" he asked politely, combing his dark hair back with his hand smoothly.

"Yes, please come inside," I answered. It was nice to meet a same-age person, who might know how I felt right now. "You're Zeth, right? Danthos's son."

The young man nodded and took a seat next to me, looking at me with wondering dark-brown eyes. Either he had never met a girl around his own age before or else he just hadn't met a Moonchild before and wondered how I was like. It was kindda cute, but a little weird too.

"I've heard a lot about your mother and your father," Zeth said. "Your father is actually my mom's cousin. I can't say how proud I am to be related to a real Moonchild and then the princess!"

I blushed. Of course I felt rather embarrassed now that I knew we were related, but I still wasn't used to the fact that I was the princess of the Moonchildren and a part of the endangered, but powerful race. But I thanked Zeth and wanted to meet his mother even more now. She was my dad's cousin and could tell me more than Daimon had told me about him.

"So you're part elf too," I said more than asked. "But don't female elves die when they give birth?"

"Well… yes, they usually do, but my mom isn't purely elf. She's part Light Creature too," Zeth explained. "And luckily, we Light Creatures are excellent healers too."

I nodded understandingly. "But what about my dad then? Was he purely elf?"

"Yes, he was purely elf, but you're a Moonchild's blood is stronger than an elf's blood, so your mother didn't have any problems with giving birth to you and your brother…" Zeth noticed that Petra had returned, so he got up and prepared himself to leave. "It was nice meeting you, Meika. I hope we'll get to talk again some other time."

I nodded and waited until he'd left before I began eating my breakfast and drank the elixir.


	21. A Nightmare

**_A/N: Hii, I'm sorry it took so long, but I've gotten my muse back! :D_**

**_I'll be updating in the weekends since I'm updating my Vampire Diaries fanfic from Monday to Friday :)_**

**_I hope you like it, thanks for being so patient, and please review!_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 21:

**Meika's POV:**

Sweet kisses woke me up in the middle of the night and I didn't have to open my eyes to guess who it was. Of course it was Marak. I could sense that he missed me the last seven days I'd been away from him and living with my dad's cousin instead. It had been seven great days there, but I missed sleeping next to Marak and to feel his skin and fur with my fingers. He used to keep me warm and held his arms around me whenever I would have a nightmare.

"Meika," Marak said melodically and I finally opened my eyes to see a bright smile on his lips. His golden eyes were almost glowing in the dark and reminded me of that he was part lion. "I've missed my little Moonchild, you know."

I giggled. Of course I knew. I was his wife and we were connected in so many ways. Even now I could still hear his thoughts. He was thinking about how lonely he had been and how worried he was for my safety. He also revealed why he was here. He was here, because something bad had happened… to Damian. I pushed him off me and quickly sat up.

"Is he…?" I couldn't say the word. I didn't _want_ to hear the word.

I loved Damian so much and didn't want him to get hurt because of me. However, Marak sat up too and gently stroke my cheek which only confirmed my suspicion. I began feeling tears stinging my eyes and I wanted to hit Marak for letting this happen, but it wasn't his fault. It couldn't be.

"It seems that Colthan found him," he said. "I'm truly sorry, Meika. I… _We_ tried to protect him, but Colthan… He's become much more powerful than we thought."

"We?" I repeated softly with tears streaming down my cheeks.

Marak nodded and dried my tears away. "Daimon and I. Daimon took his body to his kingdom where he will be buried."

Good. He _deserved_ to be buried properly and I… I wanted him to be near me. But it didn't change the fact that he was dead. He had lost his life because of me. First his parents and now… him. It wasn't fair. _I_ decided to die more than they did. They were just innocent humans who happened to adopt a parentless Moonchild.

"Meika, look at me," Marak insisted and I reluctantly looked him in his eyes. "I _will_ kill Colthan when I find him. I will get you your revenge. I promise you that."

"I know, I know, but…" I couldn't speak anymore and just tugged myself close to Marak's body, wanting him to hold his arms around me and make me feel better.

He did. He stayed with me all night, kissed me and dried my tears away, and told me how much he loved me. And in the morning he stayed too, because he didn't want to leave me like this. I knew that Marak's kingdom needed him and I tried to convince him that I was fine, but he knew that I was just lying for his sake. Zeth too had heard the bad news and came to visit me in the afternoon. He seemed pretty surprised to see Marak here and kindda shy too, which Marak found amusing.

"I like that friend of yours," he said laughing after Zeth had left again. I tried to smile, but failed miserably. How could I smile when my brother was dead? I did still have Daimon, but… it wasn't the same without Damian. "How rude of me. Here I am, feeling amused by Zeth when I should be cheering my wife up."

I looked at Marak and wanted to protest, but he shook his head and apologized. He then told me to lie down for a while with him and I gladly did without any hesitation. I rested my head on Marak's broad shoulders and just listened to his heartbeat. He gently touched my tummy and seemed to enjoy the feeling of our son's small kicks.

"For how long are you exactly going to stay?" I asked worriedly.

"Until you're happy," Marak simply answered and kissed me on my forehead. "But remember: even after I've left again, then you won't be in any serious danger, because you're married to me and Charm is therefore here to protect you as the queen of Hollow Kingdom."

I finally smiled. I had completely forgotten about Charm. He rarely talked with me and when he did, he would always remind me of how many queens that had been before me, who had never been a Moonchild like me.

"Seems like it's time for me to go…" Marak said.

I quickly shook my head, sat on top of his waist, and held his strong arms down against the mattress. He chuckled and shook his head of me, because he knew that I wasn't physically stronger than him and that he could easily push me away. But he remembered that I was six months pregnant with his son and therefore he didn't do anything that could be harmful for our unborn child.

"At least I got a great view!"

I blushed and quickly covered my breasts that had become bigger since I became pregnant, but sadly also quite sore.

"You're such a perv, Marak," I teased and made him blush a bit. "But you're not going anywhere. Not yet anyway…"

Marak narrowed his eyes at me, but he raised his hands in defeat, and pulled me down to him instead to kiss me. I missed kissing with Marak like this. His passionate kisses would always make the butterflies in my stomach go crazy and I would usually want to do more than just kiss him. But I too remembered that I was pregnant and therefore we only ended up kissing for a long time.

**Marak's POV:**

After Meika had finally fallen asleep, I left her bedroom and went to meet Danthos as planned, and found him sitting in his study room with a worried look on his face. He too had heard what had happened to Meika's adoptive brother and felt responsible for her loss. I knew that it wasn't his fault that his brother escaped, but I certainly wasn't happy about it either. My child was in danger and my wife was scared for everyone's safety.

"How did she take it?" Danthos asked softly and finished the glass of wine in front of him.

"She's still heartbroken, but she just needs to process what has happened," I said and sat down on the other side of the table. "I don't want to leave her again, Danthos. I need my wife at home – even if it means that she'll be in danger. We can't let Colthan control our lives."

Danthos nodded. He didn't say anything. He just sat there nodding for a moment, until both of us was startled by the sound of Meika's voice at the doorway. She was out of bed, holding a hand around her tummy, and was sweating out of fear. I quickly hurried to her and helped her sit down; because I knew that she lately had had a hard time walking around. She _was_ six months pregnant after all.

"What's wrong, dear?" I asked worriedly.

"I…" Meika took a deep breath to calm herself down. "I had a nightmare. A very vicious and realistic one. Colthan… he took our baby and-and…"

Meika shook her head and I saw tears streaming down her cheeks. I knew what she had dreamt and it worried me to hear that she had those kinds of dreams. I transformed my glass of wine to a glass of cold water and handed it to her.

"Are you sure it was a dream?" Danthos asked.

Meika nodded. "I started out dreaming that you wore a dress…" she said and smiled weakly. "But you don't think that it was real, do you?"

Of course I shook my head. I didn't want to scare her when she was carrying my child and grieving over the death of her adoptive brother.

"You're just tired and need rest. But we'll go home tomorrow morning. I promise," I said, kissing her gently on her forehead and then on her tummy. "Goodnight, Meika."

"Goodnight, Marak." Meika said and left.

I turned my attention back to Danthos, who seemed just as concerned about what we'd been told as I was. He was thinking the same thing. The dream might have been a vision. I sure didn't hope this was the case, because I would die before I let Colthan put a hand on my son and wife.

"I'll order my guards to stay and protecting her during the last few months." Danthos simply said.

**Meika's POV:**

It was great to come home again even though I was sure that I wasn't supposed to come home that early. However, I didn't complain and missed sleeping next to Marak, knowing that I was safe and that I wouldn't die like Damian did. I still felt responsible for his death and couldn't accept that he was gone. But I swore that if I ever met Colthan again, then I would kill him with my bare hands.

"The people have really missed you, you know," Marak said as we went in to our bedroom. I smiled. I'd missed the people too and couldn't wait until the big feast tonight that was held to welcome me back. "Has our son been treating you right?"

I chuckled. "No, he's just like his dad and keeps kicking my bladder. It's really beginning to annoy the crap out of me," I said, which only made Marak chuckle. He calmly approached me and pushed a stray of my black hair behind my ear, stroking my cheek gently with the other one. "But he sometimes calms down when I sing to him."

"So do I," Marak said. "You have a lovely voice."

I blushed and looked away, suddenly feeling so insecure. Maybe it was the hormones or maybe it was the fact that I'd gained a lot of wait, but I just couldn't stop myself from blushing. But of course Marak always loved whenever I blushed and kissed me passionately for one blissful moment. When he finally let go of my lips, he rested his forehead against mine, and took a deep breath. I knew that he was hiding something from me, but I didn't want to focus on our worries right now.

"How am I supposed to carry this child anyway? Nine months or…?" I asked to break the silence between us.

"That depends on when he wants out," Marak answered teasingly. "No, I believe that you only have about two or three months left, which means…" He pushed me down on the bed and covered my body with the blanket. "… that you have to be on bed rest. If you need anything, then yell. I'll be in my study room."

I sighed, but waited until Marak had gone inside his study room before I yelled his name. He quickly returned, listening carefully to what I wanted now.

"Just checking." I stick my tongue out and laughed, but Marak shook his head of me and went back. Though, soon after he'd left, I actually needed his help. "Marak!"

"What now?" Marak asked impatiently, sticking his head out of the doorway.

I blushed. "I have to pee again."

This time Marak only laughed, but he helped me out of bed and to the bathroom for – what felt like – the millionth time. I was seriously beginning to get very annoyed of this son of ours…


	22. Wolf Teeth

**_A/N: Hi, here's chapter 22! _**

**_I'm sorry to say that this will be the last chapter. _****_I've been thinking a bit about this story and I think it's best if I end it now since I've been finding it hard to write the chapters lately. But thanks for reviewing, favoriting, and of course reading my story. It really means a lot to me! :D_**

**_Now, I'm gonna let you read the last chapter. I hope you like it and please review! :)_**

**_xoxo Ascha_**

Chapter 22:

**Meika's POV:**

"I look like a whale!" I said for the tenth time, making Marak look up from the King's Wife Chronicles and roll his eyes of me.

I was nine and a half months pregnant now and I was seriously beginning to get on Marak's nerves. Even when he tried to remind himself that he was a very patient Goblin, then I still found a way to accidentally annoy him. But I'd talked with Daimon and he said that it was perfectly normal for a Moongirl to be so emotional during her pregnancy.

"You do not look like a whale, Meika," Marak said and finally joined me at the couch in his study room. He seemed so happy for a moment and almost excited to become a father, but then he was reminded of that we hadn't heard anything from Colthan lately and that worried him. "Are you still dreaming about Colthan?"

I sighed, but nodded reluctantly and thought about my latest nightmare. I dreamt that he abducted me from our home and somehow managed to avoid being killed by Charm, which really disturbed me. Charm was supposed to protect me from those who wanted to hurt me and he especially needed to protect me during my pregnancy. After all, I _was_ carrying the heir of the Hollow Kingdom in my womb.

So if he couldn't protect me, then who could? Marak was strong, but not strong enough and my brother, who soon too would become a father, needed to stay and protect his own wife.

Maybe I needed to find a way to protect myself with my own powers. I was strong, but lately my powers had been kindda out of control because of my pregnancy, so I needed to control them again and at the same time I needed to make sure that nothing happened to my unborn son.

"Meika," Marak said softly, because he'd been peeking on my thoughts again. I sighed and looked at him, wanting to tell him that I was okay, but I couldn't get myself to lie to my own husband. He never lied to me and treated me so well. "I'm not letting Colthan hurt you or our son. I promise. If I need to sacrifice my own life, then–"

"Don't say that!" I interrupted. "I don't want you to say that, Marak. I love you too much to let you do that for me. I… I need you alive. With me."

Marak sighed and smiled weakly. "I need you alive too, you know."

Yeah, I knew. He needed me not only as the mother of his child, but also as his wife and the queen of his kingdom. But before I could say anything at all, I suddenly heard someone clapping in a slow and sarcastic way. I didn't need to turn my head to know who it was.

"Bravo! Very… touching," Colthan said, making my heart skip a beat. It really was him and not just a nightmare. He was here. But where were the guards? Had he really overpowered them? "I really must say that you two make me want to vomit. But that's okay; because today is the last day you'll be seeing each other. Alive."

I felt something wet between my legs and blushed, thinking that I'd done something extremely embarrassing. But then I looked down and realized that it wasn't what I thought it was. My water had broken. Marak realized this too and I saw a glimpse of fear in his eyes. But he mentally said to me to relax and stay where I was, while he stopped Colthan.

"Oh, look at that! Your water just broke! Meika, you know what that means, right?" Colthan said and smirked devilishly.

Marak got up and pulled out his sword, preparing himself to fight. Colthan too pulled out his sword and without any warning they began to fight. I tried to get up from the couch, but the contractions kicked in and forced me to stay where I was. I didn't want to give birth right now and at the same time watch my husband die while trying to protect me! I had to do something. But what?

"I'm really getting tired of this, Marak. First you still my fiancée and then you knock her up…" Colthan said, while they fought violently against each other. They both seemed very skilled sword fighters, but with Marak being a Goblin and all, then he was physically stronger than Colthan. "Just give her to me and this will all be over!"

"So you can kill my son? Hell no!" Marak hissed angrily and hit Colthan's sword so hard that it broke.

But Colthan seemed to have had enough and just began using his powers instead. I knew that Marak had elf blood in him and that he too had powers, but were they enough to keep Colthan occupied until Daimon or Danthos arrived?

I felt another contraction and gritted my teeth, trying to stick it out like Petra had taught me to do. It was hard to relax when my husband was in danger. I wanted to help so badly, but… how? If I tried using my powers on Colthan, then I might accidentally hit Marak instead.

"Meika!" someone called nearby.

I turned my head and sighed in relief to see that Petra was still alive. She hurried over to me and saw what had happened to me.

"How many contractions have you had so far?" she asked worriedly.

"Two, but… where are the guards? How did Colthan get in?" I answered frantically.

Petra sighed. "Colthan possessed one of the guards and got in. Then he paralyzed the others and-and- But I'm here now. Don't worry. I'll get you out of here. Just take my hand."

"No! I can't leave Marak! He'll-he'll die!"

Petra sighed in frustration, but when she tried to get me up anyway, I suddenly saw a dark Shadow Creature behind her. It touched her one time on the side of her throat and just like that she fell to the ground. The Shadow Creature then turned his attention to me, but I quickly raised my hand and threw a light orb against it. Sadly, this only made two more Shadow Creatures appear.

However, when they touched me and Charm tried to bite them, his teeth just went right through their hands as if he'd bitten a ghost. Now I understood why I dreamt that he couldn't protect me. The Shadow Creatures weren't actual beings, but more like ghosts.

"Marak!" I quickly screamed and felt another contraction.

Marak turned his head for one minute and that was all Colthan needed to knock him into a wall. I watched as he fell down and was knocked unconscious on the floor, feeling the tears stream down my cheeks. This… this couldn't be happening. I couldn't let them take my baby. I couldn't let them kill him. I… I needed to do _something_! I couldn't give up now.

"Meika… are you ready to go now?" Colthan asked, reaching his hand out to me.

"No! Leave me the fuck alone, you sick son of a bastard!" I hissed angrily.

I tried to stand up again, but this time his Shadow Creatures grabbed my arms. However, they both began burning up for some reason and it the only thing that was left of them was black ashes on the floor. Colthan saw this and seemed rather confused, but before he could attack me, I suddenly saw a sword go through his heart from behind him. I looked over his shoulder and saw that it was Marak. He was wounded and could barely stand up, but alive.

But when Marak pulled the sword out of Colthan and he fell to the floor like a broken doll, I saw Marak collapse too. I quickly hurried over to him, ignoring the next contraction, and removed his shirt so I could find where he was bleeding from. He had a deep wound in his stomach and was bleeding heavily, so I tried to use his shirt to stop the bleeding.

"Danthos! Daimon! Anyone, please help!" I yelled as loud as I could.

"Me… Meika…" a faint whisper said. I looked down at Marak's face and saw that he was still awake. He was fighting to keep himself awake and refused to die now, because he knew that I would be completely broken if he did. "I… I love…"

Marak coughed up blood and I broke down crying. But I lay down next to him, not wanting to leave him no matter what. If… _If_ he was going to die, then I wanted to be there. I couldn't let him die alone and especially not after everything he'd done for me.

"I love you too, Marak," I whispered, crying. "I'll always love you…"

**Marak's POV:**

Everything went black. I'd thought about how my dad felt when he was dying and now I knew how he felt. But I didn't want to go. I couldn't leave Meika to raise our son all by herself and to rule my kingdom without me by her side to support her. I wished… I wished that I could turn back the time and tell Meika how beautiful she was instead of being annoyed of her crazy hormones.

"_Marak, baby. Please wake up_," an angelic voice said. It was Meika, but no matter how hard I tried to wake up, I simply just couldn't. It felt like my body was paralyzed or had gone completely numb. "_Marak, I need you to wake up. We need you._"

We? I tried forcing myself awake again, but I couldn't. At least not until I suddenly heard the sound of a baby crying next to me. I opened myeyes and turned to see Meika sitting on our bed next to me with a baby in her arms. She smiled brightly when she saw me wake up and quickly called for Daimon, who apparently also was here. Daimon entered our bedroom and sighed in relief to see me awake.

"That was about time," he said teasingly and handed Meika a blue pacifier. The baby in her arms stopped crying as soon as it was handed the pacifier and seemed satisfied for now. "Welcome back, Marak. We thought we'd lost you, but it seems that that son of yours is more powerful than I expected. He healed you from the womb! Can you believe it?"

I looked confusedly at my smiling wife and realized what was happened. I'd almost died, but someone- no, my _son_ had healed me. Meika had then given birth to him and… she survived! I couldn't believe it. I expected her to be in danger since we both had elf blood, but I guessed that the Moonchild in her had kept her alive.

"Let me see him," I said and carefully sat up. My body was still sore, but I managed to sit up properly and was handed my little baby boy. He had my golden eyes, but he had Meika's jet-black hair and beautiful skin, and he had the claws of a wolf, which explained why he seemed so territorial. But the most interesting feature wasn't the claws or the features he'd inherited from us. It was his small, sharp wolf teeth. "He's a beautiful little boy. But… I think you should name him."

Meika seemed surprised by this, but smiled brighter and kissed me on my cheek. "What about… Marak Wolfteeth?"

I chuckled a bit and nodded. It would be the first time a Goblin King had ever been part wolf, but then again… this little Marak wasn't like the other Goblin Kings. He was part Moonchild, part elf, and part Goblin.

"Marak Wolfteeth, it is!" I said and kissed Meika. Our little son didn't seem to like this, because he began growling like a wolf, and tried to scratch me with his small claws. I laughed a bit and continued teasingly. "I have a bad feeling that he is going to give me a lot of troubles. But that's okay, because we all know that in the end he's always going to listen to his mom. She's probably the only one who can tame him!"


End file.
